In the middle of nowhere
by Frichikiras
Summary: "I'm scared of heights. So skydiving? A harassing blue-haired bastard? And now we're deserted in the middle of a f*cking forest? My life sucks ass."  Eventual GrimmIchi, AU, OOCness, warnings inside.
1. The price of cockiness

**So, I'm a bit scared of what will come of this. Oh well, I'll just write my ass off and see. I thought I'd be writing more oneshots but this one morning I darted out of bed, ran like a maniac (mumbling to myself) and glued myself to my laptop to write down a plot I came up with in my bed, half asleep. I was awarded with weird looks from my family. If you don't hear from me, somebody must have called the guys with white jackets... I'll try to escape so that I'll be able to update.  
Please try to bear with my grammatical errors and typos, I'm seriously trying to avoid them. Seriously.**

**And again, enough with my useless babbling, let's get on with things. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it~**

**Warnings: Yaoi/Manxman, obviously some smut is in the horizon. I'm not hurrying things though. But in general if you're not into it, please don't read this story. Also contains bad language and character death in one chap. If there's more to warn about, I'll mention it in the particular chapter.  
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. God only knows what would happen, if I did… *smirk***

**This chapter is written in Ichigo's POV. I might change the POVs from time to time, but I'll shout it out loud when I do so.**

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**Chapter 1: The price of cockiness**

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Oh fuck I really need to find this guy. I'm starting to run out of time. What did Renji say… Black shoulder-length hair, big droopy eyes, overall small and apologetic appearance and then… It was some kind of a clue about the location he was standing, waiting to be found. I gritted my teeth and ran my fingers through my orange locks as I cursed myself to hell for not listening properly what Renji had said. Fuck. Seriously, fuck!

The thing here is that earlier today I, for some stupid reason, started to brag about my capability to find anything or anyone if needed. My friend Rukia didn't swallow it at all, so she hit me on my shoulder out of nowhere (which still by the way hurts like hell) and started to joke about my statement. Of course I got pissed and the whole thing got out of hand and now I'm trying to find this Hanatarou-dude from this huge shopping center, which is more than crowded. Damn I hate sales. Oh, and to make things worse, we made a bet out of this. Rukia is also trying to find him, to prove me wrong about me being a great fucking detective. I really don't even know why I'm doing this. There's nothing I need to prove to Rukia so I guess it's just my goddamn pride that won't allow me to eat my own words.

And maybe the fact that the loser has to do something shitty the other tells them to do. Me and my big mouth for suggesting something like that.

Okay so, I need to relax and just try to find the brat to get this over with. And of course I can't deny that I wouldn't enjoy seeing Rukia doing something she absolutely hates. Oh I'd have the time of my life! I'm so ready to dance my happydance once I claim my victory.

But enough with that. I again plunged into the mass of people and tried to look around for Hanatarou. Looking in front of me, all I saw was brown hair here, a red jacket there, ripped jeans over there… Oh and on my left there was a punk whose hair was green from the front and pink from behind. Who the hell dyes their hair like that? Seriously.. I gave a last glance at the brightly colored hair, then shrugged it off (as I remembered the color of my _own_ hair) and concentrated on my mission once again. I took my hand out of my pocket and checked the time from my watch. Shit. It was already 1:48pm. We agreed that there would be a timeline to this for two reasons. The first being: I do not want to waste a whole day in this. Besides being almost crushed to death by so many unknown bodies makes me feel more than uneasy. I don't like crowded places. I'm not so socially active that I constantly need a mass of people around me, the thought actually makes me want to run away. This is the reason I don't go to bars and stuff. The second reason for the timeline was Hanatarou's silent plead for not being forced to stand alone for hours if no-one wouldn't be able to find him. I guess it's understandable. He was also uncomfortable in this kind of a place but the reason for it was that he was, in addition to everything else, scared of people. I sure as hell wasn't scared of people, I just didn't feel comfortable being surrounded by them.

Now that I think about it, this might be Rukia's awesome idea to try and get me over my anxiety of a huge mass of people. It was her idea after all to have Renji hide Hanatarou somewhere in here. Oh screw her.

I glanced at my watch again. Hell no. I groaned and whined at the same time making the sound resemble something straight from a jungle. It was already 1:59pm. We were supposed to meet outside at 2pm. In a sudden fit of anger and frustration I threw my watch on the floor and stomped on it, instantly regretting my actions as I heard it crack under my shoe. I wasn't able to feel sorry for my watch for long since suddenly somebody came from behind, shoving people (including me) out of his way. And as a lucky person which I am, I tripped and fell, almost creating a domino effect as I pushed the person in front of me who pushed the next one and so on. Oh fuck I hate shopping centers and the overly eager mass of people running after low prices! This day couldn't get any worse.

I let out a sigh of relief as I got to the exit. Fresh air and sunshine welcomed me which was a nice change to the thick and hot air of the shopping center. Fuck Hanatarou, if I weren't able to find him neither was Rukia. I was 100% sure of that. Besides, she's so short that she can't even see around her in the mass of people. And I guess it's nice to live closer to ground so that when some bastard comes behind you in a rampage and makes you fall down you won't hurt yourself so badly, but in this particular situation it's not much of a help. So this was going to be a tie, right?

* * *

Remember when I said that this day couldn't get any worse? Okay well it just did.

Here I was lulling myself into believing that nothing bad was going to happen to me because of the bet, when the sight in front of me proved me totally wrong. Renji was standing there with Rukia.. and Hanatarou? Huh?

Rukia must've seen the utter disbelief which was slowly crossing my face because she started walking towards me with a taunting smirk on her face.

"Took you long enough, Ichigo. You know, we've been here for like a half an hour if not even longer." She said and her smile got even wider and voice lower as we both knew what this meant.

"So, to me this looks like Mr. Kurosaki here lost our bet and now I'll be rewarded with the authority to command you to do whatever I want" I could hear the triumph in her voice and see the glint of pure evil in her eyes. Oh yeah, rub it in my face as much as you want thank you very much. Renji walked beside her, giving me a sorry look, knowing I wasn't going to get off easily. I glanced at Hanatarou.. or at least where he was a minute ago. It seems that Renji had told him to leave now that we didn't have any use for him anymore. So harsh, but that's Renji for you.

I looked at some stray cat wondering on the other side of the road and waited for my judgment to be announced, scowling fiercely. There was nothing I could do about this. I lost, hands down. I wish I'd just have kept my mouth shut from the beginning. As I vowed never to talk again my fate was revealed by that devil of a woman.

"We all happen to know that besides the hate of crowded places, you also have a fear of heights, right Ichigo?" She taunted while keeping a pleasant smile on her face. My stomach rolled but I only glanced angrily at her and said nothing. Asshole, if it wasn't obvious that I had a fea.. No, let's rephrase that. I prefer ground level to high places. I leaned against a wall frowning and sighed, making it clear that I just want to get this over with. And quickly please.

"So I was thinking that maybe you should take a skydiving class? How about it? Oh, I almost forgot, why am I presenting a question when you don't have anything to say to this anyway" She cackled and wiped off a tear of joy from her left eye. Renji stood there dumbfounded and didn't do or say anything. I would have joked about it (normally he never shuts up), but I was ready to shit myself so that idea somehow didn't fit in my panic-filled mind. Me? Skydiving? Jumping to nothing, floating so high I was actually able to see God's toe hair?

"A-are you fucking serious?" I managed to squeeze out of my throat. Okay I might rephrase that one sentence once again. I do not dislike heights, I fucking _dread_ heights! I do _not_ want to do this. Seriously.

Rukia just gave me a knowing look and slowly nodded once. And to emphasize her superiority she got on her toes, ruffled my hair and then pushed my shoulder.

"Off you go, you have a class to catch" She laughed manically and turned away. Her steps were so light and she held her head so high that I only wanted to throw something at her. Maybe a bomb or something?

Renji looked at me and tried to say something. He knew how much I feared heights because we've been friends since we were just little brats. I just stared at him with wide eyes, trying to find some kind of a way to escape this. Renji understood what was going through my mind and just sighed.

"You know Ichigo that a bet is a bet. It was your idea to add this little twist in it, so there's not much you can do about it. We've done this before; you remember when Rukia went in that rat hole because she lost that one bet? She did it, not without complaining though, but still. And besides, maybe you could get over your fear? Try to look at the positive side of this because.." Renji was abruptly cut off by my sudden yell.

"Positive? You can say there's a positive side to this? Oh fuck Renji I'm screwed and you know it as well as I do. There's no way I can jump off of a plane. It's just plain impossible. The mere thought makes me feel dizzy." Maybe I should just find a high cliff and jump to end my misery. Oh but that wouldn't work either.. The height-problem would haunt me there also.

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Maybe I'll fetch that bomb back, which I in my imagination threw at Rukia when she was walking away, and blow myself up with it. At least then I didn't have to do this shit right now. Oh yeah, here I am fulfilling Rukia's demand. Fuck that stupid bet I seriously should have kept my mouth shut. This thing here is going to put me in my early grave. Oh well..

I looked at the building in front of me. It wasn't big and it had seen better days. Paint was peeling off from its walls and grass was growing on its roof. On the wall it said KASKY, meaning Karakura Skydiving. It was located pretty far from Karakura centrum, so there was nothing more than forest surrounding me. Oh but there actually were a field further away and if I saw right there was a really old Cessna 208 Caravan at the side of the field. Yeah, I know something about planes, but my fear of heights kept me from getting deeper into them. I started to doubt this place. But the class' price was rather cheap so that's why I decided to come here. I just hope their parachutes are not filled with holes or that their plane won't break down or something.

I felt more than little hesitant as I started to walk towards the building. I didn't know anybody else, who was attending to this class. So I was alone with the devil of a voice yapping in the back of my head, giving me a hard time to try to swallow my growing fear. As I got closer, I suddenly heard quiet steps behind me. I thought I was currently alone and was deep in my thoughts, so I almost jumped before I turned my head around to see who was coming behind me.

Okay, I don't know what's wrong with this guy. I tried to check the back of my pants to make sure I didn't have toilet paper hanging from my pocket or something, because the guy behind me wore a wide, and I mean like a WIDE grin on his face. He padded closer to me and tilted his head.

"Haven' seen ya here before, ya new?" He asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

I really couldn't tell what this guy was up to, but the atmosphere which was surrounding him wasn't nice at all. I also couldn't look him in the eyes since they were squinted, making him resemble a fox. He was extremely hard to read. Or actually impossible.

"Uhh, yeah. Yeah, I'm new. Actually I was forced to take a skydiving class, so here I am, confused as hell." I scratched the back of my head and looked around nervously. I wanted to run away while I still had the chance.

The weird looking man hummed and looked at me through his squinted eyes. Or I guess he did, it's kind of hard to tell. His face in general was starting to piss me off. Could you just act normal? No? Okay.

"Is tha' so, well then we're class mates in a way. Even though I've been doin' this fer years." He looked like he was thinking about something, but I seriously didn't want to know what it was. I had been talking to this guy for a few minutes and he was already creeping me out. I just mumbled something in response and stared at the ground before me.

"Gin! Hey you're here already! Why didn't you wait for me?" I snapped my head up when a bright voice came – again – from behind me. I – again – turned around to see what kind of a freak was now in turn.

"Gomen, Rangiku" The weird man, supposedly named Gin, said or actually sang while still staring at me. It bothered me, why was he staring at me?

The woman named Rangiku walked beside me and looked at me with curiosity. Oh nice, another pair of eyes glued to my face. This is just what I needed..

"Ne, Gin, who's this cutie?" Rangiku asked and moved her face closer to take a better look at my confused face. I tried to put some distance between us and staggered backwards.

"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki and I'm here for the first time. I hope this is also the last time since this place is seriously giving me the creeps. And stop with the cutie-crap" I mouthed with a deep scowl. She ignored the venom in my words.

"Ichigo? Like a strawberry? Oh, what a cute name~ And you're a newbie? Welcome to the club" She practically squealed and then glomped me, crushing my face against her huge breasts. I let out a muffled yell and pushed her away.

"What the fuck are you doing? Stay away from me, bitch!" I fumed and blushed furiously from embarrassment and rage.

"Oh Gin, isn't he just too cute!" Rangiku giggled, totally ignoring my shouting which made me even more angry. Gin just chuckled and hid his hands in his sleeves. I was just about to strangle both of them, but settled for shooting daggers at them as another person made an appearance.

"Now now, stop teasing the new boy. That's not beautiful at all. Try to think about his fragile feelings, Rangiku" A man spoke with a soft voice and then nodded at Gin as a greeting. Gin didn't react to that but just kept smiling that weird smile of his. Rangiku ran a hand through her long strawberry blonde hair and sighed.

"Don't be so boring Yumi. Why can't we tease Ichigo a little.. It's not going to kill him" She whined and made a sorrowful face. The man with black jaw-length hair and somewhat feminine facial features didn't respond to Rangiku's wailing but looked at me.

"So, your name is Ichigo I suppose? My name is Yumichika Ayasegawa. And if these two haven't been smart enough to introduce themselves, I'll do it for them. The woman harassing you is Rangiku Matsumoto and that slim man is Gin Ichimaru." He explained with a relaxed expression and then looked behind him.

"Oi, Ikkaku! There's a new guy here" He called softly at the woods. I looked away from where Yumichika was shouting and frowned. So, everybody seems to know each other. Nice. Like this wasn't bad enough, now I'm going to be harassed by this fucked up group of people because I'm the new one. Oh I wish this would be over already. My thoughts were cut off when something moved in the bushes and a bald man came out with a yell.

"What the hell are you shouting Yumi, I almost got that bastard of a.." He fumed but then went quiet and smirked once he locked eyes with me. I subconsciously took a step backwards when I saw the baldy carrying a wooden stick in his hand and eyeing me with a malicious grin. I do _not_ want to know why this guy carried that thing with him. I also decided not to piss him off.

The bald guy looked at me and raised his wooden sword-or-whatever-it-was. "So you're a newbie? Make sure you don't get in my fucking way or I'll kick your ass" He barked and then looked at both Rangiku and Gin with a quick nod. Okay, forget I said anything about pissing him off. That fucktard just made me see red.

"Fuck you baldy." I spat at him words dripping venom. "What the fuck you're saying? You are going to kick my ass? With that stick you're carrying? Let me laugh." I faked a lame laugh and then went serious again. "Fuck off."

"What the hell did you just call me, brat?" Ikkaku fumed, narrowed his eyes and took a step forward before Yumi got in front of him, looking strictly at him in the eyes. Ikkaku tried to pass him in his rage to get to kill me, but stopped when a hand was placed to his chest. "Ikkaku please, let's not start this, okay?" Even though Yumi's face was now dead serious, his voice was still soft and pleasant. I wondered what their relationship was because after Ikkaku sent me another death glare, he then looked back at Yumi and with a deep and irritated sigh he forced his body to relax.

I just stared at the two of them as Ikkaku turned his head away from all of us and crossed his arms. Yumi turned to me with a slight smile and pointed a thin finger behind him at the scowling baldy.

"Ikkaku Madarame, my boyfriend. Try not to get on his bad side, okay? I already have hard time to keep him and our unofficial boss away from each other's throats." He said and smiled but there was a threatening atmosphere around him. Boss? What the hell? I decided to keep my mouth shut for once. I almost started to direct my attention to somewhere else when something Yumi said struck me. Boyfriend? Ikkaku is his boyfriend? So that makes them..gay? Rangiku seemed to notice when I grimaced at my thoughts and guessed the cause of it. She walked near me and placed a tender hand on my shoulder. I flinched and tried to get away, remembering her previous harassment, but she followed and leaned closer to whisper softly in my ear.

"Don't worry, they're not the ones you should be worried about." She then laughed out loud when my head snapped towards her and I shoved her away from me once again my face in utter shock.

"What the hell is wrong with you people? Keep your hands away from me! Just stay away you fucking bitch!" I shrieked and my face went deep red as I stumbled backwards. Rangiku held her stomach as her laugh got even louder and it drew the attention of the rest to us. Yumi lifted an eyebrow, Ikkaku just glanced and huffed and Gin.. Well he kept that creepy smirk on and cooed something about Rangiku being so loud. I couldn't hear it accurately because that woman with those breasts huge enough to suffocate people was laughing so loud I thought my eardrums were going to explode.

I sighed in irritation and pinched my nose with my thumb and index finger. I can't deal with this. I seriously can't.. And I won't. I looked at Rangiku and frowned. She had already stopped laughing and was now wearing a puppy look on her face. She obviously got it that I'm starting to reach my limit.

"Don't get mad at us, Ichi. We mean no harm, it's just that you're so cute when you get all confused and angry" She pleaded and blinked her blue eyes. Oh fuck me this is pure shit. I knew I wanted to leave, but I also had to complete this nice little mission Rukia gave me for losing the bet. Oh I'm so going to get back at her for this..

"Don't call me cute, idiot. And who the hell gave you a permission to call me Ichi. My name is Ichigo." I huffed and turned my head away. Rangiku made a sound which indicated that she was about to say something when a car pulled to a free parking space. We all turned our heads towards the electric blue car and I furrowed my brow. Yeah this is great, another bastard.

Gin walked closer to us from the shadow he had withdrawn earlier. "My my if it isn't Grimm, late as always" He chuckled. What the fuck is wrong with this guy? He hasn't stopped smiling even once. And doesn't it bother him that he's not able to see in front of him properly because he keeps his eyes shut? How the hell can he walk without bumping into things? I don't get it. Besides his hair color was odd. It was so light, almost silver. I was dragged out from my thoughts once more as the car's door was opened and somebody stepped out.

What the hell? A guy with blue fucking hair came out and stretched before slamming the door shut. He then sniffed once and turned his head at us with a wide grin.

"Guess ya guys are all here already. Good, spares me the pain of waiting. I fucking hate it." He said with a gruff voice and walked towards us with a yawn. "Well fucking move it! Let's get things started, Soifon should already be preparing the plane and she'll be pissed as hell if we aren't ready when she is. And I don't want to deal with the bitching." He rushed the others as he got closer. I could feel heat reaching my face and knew my face was red as a tomato. Fuck I hate my tendency to blush easily when I'm nervous or embarrassed or so on. Well I need to inform my presence and tell that I'm new and and.. shit, I don't want to.

I mentally kicked myself since I was acting like a goddamn girl. Let's just get this over with. I stepped forward and cleared my throat as everybody else started to make their way into the worn out building behind us.

"Err, I'm Ichigo Kurosaki and I'm kind of new with.. this shit…" I trailed off when the blue haired man noticed me and stopped walking. His cyan eyes locked with my brown ones. Okay now I feel like a fucking deer in the headlights. I don't know how long we just stood there in awkward silence. Or at least it was extremely awkward for me, I don't know about this other bastard now in front of me. He broke our eye contact and let his eyes make a tour on my body. Okay _now_ I feel uncomfortable as hell. One gay couple is enough for me thank you.

"A new guy it is. And name was Ichigo.." He said with a husky voice and looked me in the eyes again. I couldn't help but turn my head away. I don't know why but his eyes were like lasers and I felt myself blushing even harder. Fuck this all!

The man obviously saw my reaction and an even wider smirk plastered itself on his face. "Name is Grimmjow Jaegerjaques and I'm the leader aka the boss of this shithole. Do as I say and we're all good." Pride could be heard from his voice as he offered me his hand. Though I don't get it why one would be proud of _this_ place. It really is a shithole. Nevertheless I shook his hand and looked at him. His eyes were still fixated on my face and I felt more nervous than before. If it was even possible. He bend down so that his face was on the same level as mine, almost invading my personal space. Fucking bastard, even though he's clearly taller than me, it's not like he'd had to rub it in my face. I scowled and took a step backwards. This is ridiculous, fuck Rukia and everything else on this goddamn planet!

He just barked a laugh at my reaction, grabbed my arm and despite my protest he started to drag me towards the garage-like building where the others went earlier.

"Okay Berry, let's see what ya got."

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**Okay so, I hope that this wasn't too boring.. Was it? If it was, then please tell me so that I'll know to avoid it in the future~ I just thought not to rush things too fast since this was the first chappy after all. :|  
But yeah, poor Ichigo.. And things are not going to look any better for him.. With this group around him, it's only natural that things are going to get worse. ****Fufu.**

**Reviews equal instant love and huge gratitude :)**

**~Frichikiras**


	2. The price of bravery

**Ho! Another chapter! First of all, I want to thank you for the reviews, favorites and alerts. They warmed my heart. Seriously, thank you SO much! :) They really motivate me to keep torturing Ichigo… like.. this… Yeah. *cough*  
And mylife9: Yeah, you really did make my day :D**

**School is kicking my ass at the moment with finals, so I don't know when I'll be able to update the next chapter. But I promise that it won't take too long to appear~  
Oh, and I have never tried skydiving, so if there's a lack of any practical thingy, I'm sorry.  
Again, don't shoot me because of my typos or/and errors.. *sniffle***

**Warnings: Over-the-topness, general idiocy, bad language and maybe something a little more intimate. But not too hot (yet), so don't rip your pants~  
Disclaimer: I still don't own Bleach. *sigh***

**We'll go with Ichigo's POV again. The first few chaps will most likely be written completely in his POV, but I might start changing it once we get to a certain point of the plot. ****We'll see..  
I hope this meets your expectations.. :)**

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**Chapter 2: The price of bravery**

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Grimmjow made me sit on an old chair and wait for him while he went to get some papers or something. According to him, I'm not allowed to move an inch or I'll lose an organ. Why? So that this ridiculously old chair under me won't break? If that's the case, I'll be still like a statue.

I looked around me to find something to amuse myself with while waiting. Err, well there's a dusty office table, some dusty books about parachutes and a dusty brown couch.. Obviously this place hasn't been visited by a cleaning lady for a while. I sighed and started to stare at my feet. I wondered why I am forced to sit on this wooden and very uncomfortable chair when there's also a couch in the room. Besides, the sun was shining straight into my eyes through the dirty window.

Suddenly I smiled as I remembered what happened on our way here. Grimmjow was dragging me behind him across the yard and towards the KASKY building. When we got in front of the very old looking door, he grabbed the door knob and tried to open it. It didn't move. "Okay just cut the fucking crap and open the fucking door!" Grimmjow yelled and tried again with more force. This time he was left with the door knob in his hand while the door remained closed. The look on his face when the knob fell off was too much for me. Idiot, how about buying a new door? I seriously tried to muffle my laugh but I couldn't. The whole situation was so fucking ridiculous I couldn't believe it was actually happening. I didn't have much time to laugh because suddenly I was pushed against a wall with a loud thump. Grimmjow was fuming and threatened to rip my tongue off if I dare to emit another sound. Well that worked: I went silent but in my head I was having the best laugh ever because his idiot-looking face. The situation was more than amusing, ignoring the fact that his face was a little too close to my liking. The people inside must have heard Grimmjow's shouting and loud actions because after a moment a confused-looking Ikkaku came to open the door. He was rewarded with a rough push to the chest as Grimmjow shoved him away in his rage and stomped in, me behind since I was still being dragged by the blue-haired man. I heard Ikkaku cursing Grimmjow to the lowest pits of Hell as he collected himself from the floor. But because he didn't come after us I guess that Yumi worked his magic to stop the furious fucktard.

I think I'll remember that forever and rub it in the blue-haired bastard's face whenever he acts like an asshole. Oh, but he seems to always be an arrogant asshole, so what should I do? Maybe I'll just wait for a good opportunity and strike when it will piss him off the most. And then run like hell and laugh my ass off. Yeah..

I lifted my head as I heard steps. Grimmjow came back to the room and looked like he was in a better mood, which was not a good thing for me. I was right about that, because while walking slowly past me, he put a hand on my head and came closer to me. "Here ya were waiting like a good berry which ya are." I flinched and slapped his hand away. My good mood from the memory of the door-episode was ruined in less than a second. Why was everybody so fucking touchy-feely? Be all over each other for all I care, but just keep those nasty hands off me.

"Fuck you and what the hell was with the hand?" I spat and was rewarded with a wide smirk. Well that answered my question. The blue-haired asshole then sat on his chair (which looked more comfortable than this piece of shit I was sitting on. My ass hurts.) and cleared his throat while shoving a paper in front of me.

"I need ya to sign this paper. Ya can pay in the last day." I feel like I don't want to pay for this. Ever. I'll rather clean our toilet by licking it. Well not really. But I still didn't have much choice thanks to my dear friend Rukia and her shitty ideas. I took a pen from the table and tried to scribble my name on the paper. The pen didn't work. I tossed it away and glared at Grimmjow who snorted and started to look for another one. Finally he found one that seemed to work. While I was writing he yawned and then leaned forward.

"I suppose ya haven't done any skydiving before" Duh, I said earlier I was new with this didn't I? Moron.

"Obviously" I said bluntly, placed the pen back on the table and turned my head away. I still felt nervous and even more pissed when he stared at me like that. Grimmjow ignored my rudeness with a somehow content sigh and looked at his papers. I guess he was thinking about something, if he was even able to do such an act. As I felt that I wasn't stared at anymore I slowly turned my head back and looked at the man in front of me. He was now riffling through his papers with a slightly bored expression when suddenly he went still as if he'd just realized something. Then he lifted his gaze back at me and a sly smirk tugged his lips. I looked around me to see what kind of possible escape routes I had if the need to flee would arise.

"Y'know, since ya haven't jumped from a plane before, we can't just let ya go and do whatever comes to yer mind once we're up there. Ya do not even know how a parachute works" He said slowly with a mischievous voice. I don't want to know where this is going.

"There's always the simulator.. Then there's the possibility to learn by jumping tandem.. Hmm, what to do.." Simulator I say! Definitely the goddamn SIMULATOR! I didn't say anything but there was a voice screaming in my head.

He didn't break our eye-contact as he smirked at me. My eyes were wide as ever and there was a fucking tornado in my stomach. There was a glimpse of something I could not recognize in his cyan eyes. With his shit eating grin getting even wider, he continued his slow speech.

"The simulator happens to be in Seiretei, which is too far away so it seems there's no other way than to try tandem skydiving."

...

..

* * *

This time I was sitting on a couch in the garage, waiting for the others to put our things together. I didn't have to do anything else than just sit, watch and learn. Like that would be possible. I was currently having an internal freak-out which started when I heard that I'll be jumping out of a plane while being tied to somebody. That in addition to my constant panicking about the fact that I'm going to be high as fuck made me feel sick.

I didn't even know with who am I going to jump to my death. I looked at the people fussing around their equipment. First my eyes set on Ikkaku. Well I don't even need to think about it. It's a definite no. If I were made to jump with him, I wouldn't die because of my fear, I would die because Ikkaku would rip my head off. Unless I'd be quicker to rip his. Then there's his _boyfriend_ Yumi. I shivered at the word. C'mon just think about it! Or.. don't.. I just killed myself with my own thoughts.. I slumped on the couch while groaning loudly and buried my face in my hands. I was supposed to look and learn, I know, but right then I didn't give a fuck. Then I felt a slight wind on my skin indicating that someone was walking somewhere close. I raised my head to see who it was.

Gin walked past me again and a thought of jumping with him crossed my mind. He smiling his fucking idiot smile, being all calm behind me while I would be screaming my lungs out. Besides, he would probably make me slip from my harness just to see what would happen to my body when it would hit the ground. The picture in my head was so twisted it almost made me smile. Almost. I wonder if he will open his eyes during the jump. I might have to ask him.

I dropped the thought and turned my gaze at Rangiku, who noticed my stare and because of it she squeezed her breasts with her hands while pouting her lips. Oh the hell with this! I huffed and turned my face away from her and she seemed to notice my absolute discomfort. Or at least I could suppose so from her loud giggling laugh. As I was trying to force my blush away I also tried to erase the memory of Rangiku assaulting my eyes with her pervy actions. Maybe I should have thrown something at her to knock her out. That way she would have been still and silent for a while. Why the fuck does she has to rape my brain like this? She must have some kind of a sick obsession about her breasts. Crazy bitch. There's no way I'm going to jump with her.

I glanced at her again and luckily she didn't notice it this time. How can somebody have so fucking huge breasts? I mean, isn't it harmful for her back or something? My dad is a doctor so it's only natural for me to think about possible health issues. And those boobs definitely cause them: probably physical for herself and mental for the people around her. Actually they might cause physical issues to others also, if she succeeds to suffocate someone with those lumps of fat tissue. She should get rid of them while she still can.. I think I'm starting to lose it since my following thoughts started to freak me out. The thought crossing my mind was that maybe if our landing would go badly, at least my landing could be soft if I were able to land on Rangiku's huge bust. You know, it could work as a pillow or something. Who gives a fuck about what happens to the breasts' owner as long as I'm okay..? I pinched my nose with my fingers and mentally kicked my own ass. Ichigo, just shut the hell up for a while..

Big ass irritation started to invade my mind and I rubbed my temples. Screw this place and everything in it. The people in here are all fucking morons and they have started to make me worry about my mental health. Seriously. Rukia didn't have any idea what she'd be putting me through when she announced my loser's "punishment". I hate her.

"Ichigo, your lip will get ugly, if you keep chewing on it like that" A voice startled me and I looked at Yumi who was in front of me, leaning lightly against a wall. I didn't notice I was practically devouring my lower lip while I was in my thoughts but now that Yumi mentioned about it, it already did feel like something foreign against my tongue. I didn't respond to Yumi who didn't seem to care. There was a silent moment between us until he spoke again while tapping a finger against his chin.

"I was thinking that you will probably jump with someone this time, right?" I stopped all of my actions and sat still. Oh shit, here we go. An axe through my skull, anyone? Please..

"Do you know who you are going to jump with?" He asked tentatively. As you can guess, I would rather skip the whole freaking thing, but because it's not an option..

"Well nobody has said anything about it to me, so.. But for my own health it should be somebody who won't rape me midair or something.." I groaned and looked to the side. I didn't want to talk about this right now and I didn't know what to do with my hands so I just held them in my lap like some dead octopus' tentacles. Or at least that's what they looked like.

"I could always jump with you, if you don't mind. And don't worry, I won't attack you. Ikkaku is the one who does the attacking." Yumi chuckled as he saw me furrowing my brow and shuddering in displeasure at his last sentence. But at the same time I was grateful to this gay bastard, because I think that with him, I'd succeed to land with most of my brain function still there.

"Oh no Yumi, you're not jumping with him." Well there went my last chance of hope. Now I'm officially doomed. Ikkaku growled at Yumi from a corner while going through his gear. Yumichika looked like he was going to argue, but then just sighed, ruffled my hair and left. Everybody seemed to have some kind of fucked up interest to my hair and I'm so tired of always snapping at people because of it that now I just scowled when he messed with my hair. Yeah, go ahead, I love it so much when somebody puts their shitty hand in my hair. Let's share the shit via my hair!

Rangiku raised her head as she heard our conversation. "Oh, I want to jump with cutie-Ichi!" She squealed and raised her hands to her cheeks. I got up from the couch and pointed a finger at her.

"Oh hell no I'm letting you anywhere near me! I don't want to be afraid that I'd be raped or suffocated by your devil-breasts when I already am shitting myself because of my fear of…" I trailed off when I understood what I was babbling. Oh fuck, I probably shouldn't have said that.

Everybody went silent and it was Gin who made the first sound in the room, getting up from the floor and walking in front of me with that fucking creepy smile of his.

"Oh, our Ichigo isn' afraid of heights now is he?" He sang with a disgustingly cheerful voice. There was a roll in my stomach. I was so going to hear about this for the rest of this shitty time here. Rangiku was now also walking towards me and reached her arms forward.

"Don't be scared Ichi, I won't let anything happen to you" She cried overdramatically with an obvious taunt in her voice. Oh how I hate her also. I hid the unmanly fearful state of my mind by getting more riled up than I actually was.

"Fuck you all you shitbags! Don't you have anything better to do?" I was roaring as loud as I possibly could, hoping they'd become deaf and thus leave me alone. It was no use. Rangiku cackled as did Ikkaku. Yumi had a strangely wide smile on his face and Gin.. I couldn't believe his face could stretch that much as he just stood there and stared at me with his slitted eyes.

Luckily my suffering was ended fairly quickly when everybody's attention turned to a shouting Grimmjow as he stormed to the room with a nagging woman behind him. I didn't have the slightest idea who the hell she was. But she looked like somebody had shoved a stick up her ass. As I listened the shouting, I slumped back on the couch.

"Bitch, just shut the fuck up and do yer fucking job as told! And if that doesn't please ya, then just dig a hole and die in it." Okay, talking about an impressive entrance. The woman behind him wasn't affected by Grimmjow's harsh words and continued her bitching

"Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, let me remind you that if I'm not here, you won't be flying anywhere. Besides it's a miracle that I'm still here considering the pathetic amount of money you call wage and that piece of junk you call a plane. Now if you'd be kind enough to drag your ass in the mentioned plane. I have better things to do today than to argue endlessly with a brainless idiot like you. Besides nagnagnagnagnagnag~" I didn't have the energy to continue listening her bitching. I really hope she'd take Grimmjow's word seriously and dig a hole and die. Hopefully she'd take the rest of these bastards with her.

Grimmjow stopped, turned on his heels and pushed the nagging woman backwards, making her shut up in surprise.

"Shut. Yer. Trap. Go. To. The. Fucking. Plane! Understood, did I say clearly enough? And now, fuck off!" He shouted and then slammed the door in front of her face. There was a kick to the door and then loud steps could be heard until it was silent again. Grimmjow growled while he kicked a wall and then he turned towards me. There was pure rage in his eyes as he walked to me. I decided to stay silent and watch what would happen. Maybe it was time for me to lose that organ Grimmjow threatened earlier. Awesome.

He didn't say anything to me but just stared with those cold blue eyes. Then he turned his head to the side and glanced at the others behind him.

"You all. Take yer stuff. Go to the plane. Now!" He nodded towards the door from which he earlier came in. Rangiku practically ran out, Yumi behind her. Ikkaku didn't go without complaining, but went out nevertheless. Gin seemed to take his time, I don't know what the hell his problem was but he seemed to be amused by the whole situation. But finally he went out and left me alone with this maniac. I watched the door closing behind Gin and then turned my attention to the man in front me. I was still pissed off because of what happened earlier, but decided to at least try not to snap at him. Otherwise this would not end well.

He still didn't say anything. The atmosphere was more than tense and my anger was replaced with nervousness. Why the hell didn't he say anything? This was starting to be creepy as fuck.

"Err, you had something to talk to me?" I hesitantly asked. Then I started to think. Why the hell was I so wary around him? I still decided to wait and see what he would answer.

There was no answer. He took a step closer and leaned in, pushing me further in the cushions by my shoulders. What the fuck is this? I don't like this. I want to get out. Grimmjow got even closer and put a knee between my legs on the couch, putting his weight on it. Our faces were so close that I could feel his heavy breath on my face. Shit, shit, shit.. I was sure my face was red as a tomato by now. I was too shocked to react in any way so I just stared at him in horror.

Another silent moment. Grimmjow's predatory-like cyan eyes were drilling into my brown ones. Then he leaned even closer and I tried to pull my head back to create a distance. But it was no use as the cushions prevented my head to go any further. Suddenly there was a hand on my jaw and it forced my chin upwards. I let out a muffled yell because that just came out of nowhere and scared me half dead. He then leaned towards my ear and purred with a low voice.

"Ya will be jumping with me. No objections or I won't guarantee the consequences. Understood?"

My breath hitched as I nodded quickly. In my head I pleaded him to get off me, but I said nothing. However my wish was granted as Grimmjow suddenly got up and looked at my flushed face and wide eyes. His normal grin now stretched on his face once more. I felt ridiculously helpless on the sofa but nobody had done that to me before, so how the fuck do you expect me to react? The blue haired molester put a hand on my head, but didn't ruffle my hair. He, much to my horror, petted my head quite gently and then turned around and headed towards the door. I was left there with a shock. Okay, what the fuck was that just now?

Just before he stepped through the now open door, he turned to me, his face serious.

"We're going to set off in a few minutes. Ya better be there so that I won't need to come back and drag ya there. Yer stuff is already there in the plane" With his feral grin again in place he then turned around and left the room.

I let out a huge sigh of relief. Finally I was alone with my thoughts. It still didn't mean that it'd be peaceful because right at this moment my head was a mess. What the fuck was that? Why did he act like that? Then I slapped myself in the forehead. Why the fuck did _I_ react like that? Or actually why didn't I react differently, for example beat the shit out of him? Who knows. Nobody knew the answer to why I was receiving such a treatment in a theoretically participatory skydiving school either. This was pure shit. I just had to pull through. I groaned and stood up stretching not-so-gracefully and then started to make my way to the field and towards the plane. My demise was getting closer. Not only was I forced to face my fear, I was also forced to do it while I was tied to that bastard. I think I'll take a sledgehammer with me so that if he decides to make a move at me again, I can make him remember his place quite easily.

* * *

As I got to the field, the plane's engine was already running. I was wearing quite skin-tight clothes to minimize the air resistance and the annoying flapping of them while dropping through air. I had accepted my faith, so now I just tried to stay sane.

I almost told Grimmjow to go screw himself and turn around to get the hell out of there when I saw his expression as he looked at me. His eyes devoured my body which seriously gave me the creeps. What the hell was up with him? Don't tell me he really is gay or something.. Maybe he needs a good beat up to wake up from his trans..

I didn't say anything to anyone but went straight into the plane and sat down. My heart was thumping so loud I thought it was going to break out from my ribcage. Forget what I said about accepting anything. I was starting to panic and that fucking idiot named Gin Ichimaru grinning in front of me like a moron wasn't helping my nerves at all.

"Ya scared?" He cooed and tilted his head. I just glared at him, which made him chuckle.

"Don' be, it's been a long time since somebody have hurt themselves.." While speaking he suddenly opened his eyes a little and showed his ice blue eyes. I just stared. Whoah, he actually _had_ irises.

Everybody else also got into the plane when a yell was heard from the front of the plane.

"Every idiot in the plane or you will miss the flight! I won't ask you again" It was the same woman who was fighting with Grimmjow earlier. Yumi, who already got into the plane saw my thoughtful face and guessed what I was thinking.

"She's Soifon, our pilot. Don't be offended by her harsh words" He was cut off my Ikkaku, who was sitting next to him.

"Yeah, she's an ass, ignore her and you'll be just fine." He grinned in excitement and threw an arm around Yumi who didn't seem to mind at all. I would have commented to it, but my mind was filled with nervousness and slight panic, so I just stared. Grimmjow came from the front and sat next to me, Rangiku being on my right. Oh how I loved to sit between these two. Just make Gin sit on my lap, then it'd be perfect. I really must keep my guard on. I sighed and tried to relax when suddenly I felt arms around me and a disgustingly familiar pair of breasts against my side.

"Relax Ichi, should I give you a little sake? Would that make our Ichi get rid of his fears?" She sang and grabbed me tighter.

I yelled and shoved her arms away while standing up. The plane was already moving so it wasn't such a surprise when I lost my balance and started to fall down. And yes of course, out of all of them, I happened to land on Grimmjow. Just great. Apparently he was in his own thoughts because his eyes were wide as plates when I fell on his lap with a thump. As soon as I understood what happened I scrambled away from him in horror and finally managed to sit back on my place. But before it I cursed Rangiku and threatened to break her neck if she'd do that again. She just giggled. Bitch. I leaned forward and buried my face in my hands.

Grimmjow was going in slow-mode because it seemed that he just then understood what had happened. His face stretched to impossible widths as he looked at me with those greedy eyes.

"If ya wanna get my attention, ya don't need to splatter yerself on my lap like that, Berry. Just ask me and I'll hold ya" He murmured and stared me deep into the eyes. And as you could imagine, I went redder than ever before.

"Shut the fuck up. I definitely wouldn't have fallen on you if this witch next to me hadn't been molesting me again" I spat at him and turned my head away. I only heard a chuckle and then felt a hand on my head, ruffling my hair. Just form a fucking line so that everyone gets to stick their slimy hands into my hair. Annoying as hell!

* * *

We were already 2000 meters high in the air. I was feeling quite okay, ignoring the constant shaking of my hands, crazy beating of my heart, rolling in my stomach and dizziness in my head. Yeah, I was doing just fine..

Grimmjow told me earlier that we would get up to 3000 meters and then jump. So that meant that there would be a short time of free-fall before the parachutes would be opened. Lovely. Everybody was already wearing their parachutes in a back bag kind of thing. I of course was only wearing a harness which would be attached to Grimmjow's harness. Oh fuck I don't know what will happen in there. I don't even want to know. But the mere thought of having the blue haired fucktard that close to me makes me feel uneasy. I looked around me. Ikkaku was staring out of the little window, Yumi was talking with Rankiku about something trivial and Gin was smiling and staring at the wall. Grimmjow was listening to Yumi and Rangiku, but didn't comment to their conversation. And I was panicking. Ikkaku turned around and looked at me.

"You want to take a look out of the window, Kurosaki?" He smirked and surely as hell knew that I wouldn't want to do that. I didn't even bother to answer his question.

Finally, to my utter horror, Soifon announced that we had reached 3000 meters. My heart skipped a beat. Or actually it felt like it stopped completely. I glanced around me in panic like I'd be trying to search for comfort somewhere. But there was none. Ikkaku yelled that he wanted to be the first, Yumi declared he'd go after his lover. Grimmjow stated that we'd go third. I groaned and actually pleaded out loud that we would go last, but it's not like he'd listen to me.

There I was, watching in shock as Ikkaku jumped into nothing, Yumi behind him. Grimmjow grabbed my arm and guided me to stand in front of him. I froze as I felt his body pressing against my back and felt his hands on my sides, fastening my harness into his and making sure that it would hold. He noticed my tenseness because he then placed his hands on my shoulders and massaged them a little. I was too shocked to react. This was it, this was the end of my poor life. Grimmjow guided us closer to the door and for the first time I actually saw all the way down. My horror was indescribably huge as I tried to gasp for breath. My whole body was shaking and I could actually feel tears in the corner of my eyes. I can't do this, I really can't.

Grimmjow took my hand and pressed his lips against my ear. "Don't be afraid, Ichigo. I won't let anything happen to ya. Ya'll learn to love this once ya get over yer fear." He said surprisingly softly. Because my current panic, I actually missed the fact that the bastard called me by my real name for the first time. My dread was too huge to be overcome by those words and actions and Grimmjow seemed to notice it because suddenly he started to push me forward towards the gaping nothingness. If possible, my eyes got even wider and I started to scream. Oh yes, scream. And it wasn't the most manly scream there is.. We were now standing at the edge and as my screaming had stopped, I now felt the tears falling down my cheeks. Grimmjow was holding on the frames of the plane's door so that we won't fall out before the time was right. If you ask me, the right time will _never_ come.

"Ya ready?" He shouted and I barely heard it because the noise of the plane and the wind was so loud. I didn't respond and just kept my eyes shut. "Ichigo?" He shouted again, this time a lot louder. I swallowed a lump from my throat and took a shaky breath. I will have to let go sometime. We can't stand here forever even though I'd like it that way. I will have to get over my fear and do this. I will have to.. I will..

Finally I moved and slowly nodded, regretting it the second I felt Grimmjow letting go of the door frame and pushing us out of the plane. My stomach fell to God knows where as I couldn't feel anything beneath my feet. The wind was whooshing in my ears but I could hear Grimmjow yelling in excitement behind me.

"Ichi, open yer eyes, this is fucking awesome!" First I didn't do as I was told, but then decided to man up and opened both of my eyes at once. Oh. My. Fucking. God. A scream ripped again from my throat.

"FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! SHIIIIIIIIIT!" OH SHIT, FUCK, FUCKING ASS-RIPPING BANANA-PEELING MOTHERFUCKEEEER'S COCK-KNOOOOT…..!" I shouted as I stared down at the nothingness and the ground far down beneath us. I heard Grimmjow laughing manically behind me and felt him grapping my arms and spreading them to my sides. Oh, if this isn't a classic Titanic-scene, then what is?  
The sun was shining brightly and if I'll tell you the truth, the view was absolutely breathtaking. As quickly as the free-fall started, it was over as Grimmjow opened his parachute.

Our speed reduced dramatically and now we were floating through the air. I could see Ikkaku's and Yumi's parachutes down on the ground where we had agreed to land. I smiled faintly. I actually made it. And I'm still alive! I got over my fear of heights and now I was actually enjoying this a bit. The wind was blowing nicely and I could finally try to calm down my beating heart.

"So, how was it? Euphoric, yeah?" Grimmjow finally asked with enthusiasm dripping from his voice. I could actually hear him grinning like an animal, which sounds weird but I could. I tried to look at him, but couldn't turn my head so that I'd see him properly so I just smiled faintly and hesitantly nodded. He laughed.

"Then tell me, do ya always cuss so fucking much, Ichi? What was it? Ass-ripping.. Err, banana something and eeh.. A cock-knot? If I remember right.." He laughed loudly and then cursed before steadying our parachute as a sudden blow of wind made it swing a little. I went deep red as I remembered what I had blurted in my state of panic. I didn't know how to respond so I just yelled the safe old phrase.

"Shut up! You don't have anything better to talk about? I was sure I'm going to die!" He laughed even harder and kicked my feet with his own. I yelped and scowled at him.

"What the hell?" First Grimmjow didn't answer, but then responded firmly. "We're getting closer to the ground so prepare yerself." Well if you keep kicking me, I won't be able to get ready for anything. Actually I didn't even know what he meant by preparing myself until it was too late. I wasn't at all ready for landing and so as my feet touched the ground I immediately slumped to the ground, pulling a cursing Grimmjow down with me. The parachute landed on top of us and it was a struggle to crawl from under it after Grimmjow released me from my harness. When I finally managed to get out under it, I tried to stand up. Oh no, not this time. My legs shook so badly that I ended up falling down on the ground, much to Ikkaku's amusement. I was still feeling a bit lightheaded from the jump, so I didn't react to his taunting laugh and shouts of me being a newbie. Like I didn't know it without him saying it. Fucktard.

Yumi walked beside me and offered a hand. "C'mon, give me your hand. I'll pull you to your feet. Otherwise you'll get your clothes dirty and catch a cold" I didn't hesitate so I grabbed his hand and allowed him to pull me up. After I was on my own two feet and my head was starting to work again I thought that Yumi was quite strong. Well yeah, I'm not the most muscular one, but I'm not a slim stick either, so I probably am not the lightest around. And I _was_ bigger than Yumi, so..

I didn't try to walk as I knew my legs would give out. Right now it was hard enough to just stand. I watched as Rangiku and Gin landed as well and started to pack up their parachutes with the help of the others. I felt like an ass for not helping, but the fact is that I didn't know what I should have done, so I guess it was better to just stay out of their way.

As the other fussed around their parachutes I relived the jump. First it was scary as hell, but now I actually felt awesome when it was over. Suddenly my head was starting to come down from the adrenaline rush and I started to feel a little dizzy. I sat down on the ground and tried desperately to hold on to my consciousness, but failed miserably as I saw the world blackening. The last thing I saw was Rangiku's worried face as she noticed me slumping down and shouted my name.

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes as I tried to remember what happened to me. Oh yeah, I jumped out of a plane and fainted after it. How lame is that? I got up to my elbows and looked around, trying to figure out where I was. It seemed that somehow I ended up back in KASKY's garage and now I was lying on the same sofa on which I was sitting earlier before the jump. Okay, so everything is good.. Then it hit me. Hey wait, if I suddenly ended up here, that means that somebody… carried me here? What? Oh fuck no… I groaned and placed a hand on my forehead in my embarrassment but took it off as I heard somebody entering the hall.

"Ichi, cutie, you're awake!" Rangiku squealed and practically ran to me. "Now take this, it'll make you feel a lot better" She spluttered with a pink tint on her cheeks. I didn't say anything but took the little bowl kind of dish she handed to me. As I took a sip, I suddenly blew it out of my mouth and got a coughing fit.

"Wha.. What the fuck, sake? And this is suppo.. supposed to make me feel better? By making me drunk?" I managed to yell as I got up to sit on the couch. Rangiku just smiled at me goofily and I could tell she was already totally wasted.

"Sake can cure eeeverything, ne Ichi?" She chirped brightly and then hiccupped.

"No, no! Of course it can't!" I bellowed, making Rangiku pout her lip and blink her puppy eyes. Oh that is so not going to work on me..

"Whaaat? Don't be so boring, Ichi.. Gimme a hug!" She tried to come closer but I plunged away from her and successfully dropped to my knees as my head was still not quite recovered from my unintentional sleep.

"Rangiku, why are you teasing Ichigo like this?" Gin cooed as he came from the shadows. Hey wait, how long had he been in that corner? Was he fucking stalking me from there? Oh my god I feel sick..

Rangiku walked unsteadily towards Gin, who just dodged her approaches so that she finally stumbled to her own legs and fell down. I looked at her and was about to ask did the fucking idiot hurt herself, but stopped my intentions as I heard a light snore. Oh, she passed out.. Well good, that way she'll let me be.

Gin didn't say anything and I guess he had left somewhere because when I looked around me, I didn't see him anywhere. Shit, that guy was weird as hell. Walking in the shadows and emerging from the oddest places..

I wasn't sure if I could drive home, so I took my cell and dialed a number. It took some time, much to my irritation, but finally my red headed bastard of a friend picked up.

"So, you're still alive, or is this a message that my friend died midair?" He barked with a rough voice.

"Oh fuck you, Renji. Stop being a shithead and come pick me up." I said with a hoarse voice as I collected myself from the floor and swept my jeans with my hand.

"Huh, why? Did you crash your own car or something while panicing?" He taunted. Yeah I know I had crashed my car a few times, but it's not like he should be reminding me about it every fucking time..

"Ehh, cut the crap Renji and drag your ass over here.." I said with a defeated voice. I wasn't up for a fight right now so I'd just give up. I could beat his ass later. Renji barked a laugh and then cleared his throat. "Yeah, I'll be there in a sec.." Yeah yeah, a sec in my ass..

Once the call was cut off I wandered to find the others to say I was leaving. And I guess I should thank the one who carried me here. First I needed to find out who it was.. Though I had an idea who it could be.

I went to Grimmjow's office, where I earlier signed the goddamn paper, and knocked on the door. The answer was a simple grunt, so I opened the door and walked in. He was sitting on his chair and went through some papers. When he glanced at who came in and saw me, he put the papers aside and his wide grin made an appearance once again.

"So, ya woke from yer beauty sleep, Berry?" He leaned forward and chuckled at my instant scowl.

"Oh fuck you, you goddamn bastard." I spat at him. Oh well, the nice Grimmjow in the plane was too good to be true after all.. I guess it was just the instructor-side of him. I glared at him before I remembered why I came in the first place.

"Eehm, I woke up here, so.. I was just thinking.." I was cut off by the blue haired asshole.

"Ya wondering who carried yer ass here? Well, obviously it was me. Actually ya should thank me, yer not the lightest one in the world to carry around.." He blabbed and ran a hand through his blue locks.

"Huh? Well who the fuck asked you to carry me? I'm not going to thank you from anything.. God, you're such an ass.." I fumed and turned to leave the office. But before I was able to open the door, a hand slammed against it from behind, blocking my way effectively. I turned around to notice that I was pinned against the door by Grimmjow. He moved his body closer to mine, making me blush fiercely and leaned in to murmur into my ear.

"Ya know, it's kinda rude _not_ to thank someone who did something nice fer ya.." I shivered at his low voice and then immediately mentally kicked myself in the ass. What the fuck was I doing, I should get the hell out of here and fast. Renji was probably waiting for me already..

"Grimmjow, would you please move your corpse away from me? I'm going to ask nicely only once and then I'll kick you in the nuts if it doesn't work.." I warned him, but my voice lacked the determination and authority which I by the way didn't even have. Grimmjow leaned his head against my shoulder and laughed, but then he moved back and looked me in the eyes.

"I'll let ya slip this time, but next time ya might not be so lucky." He chuckled and stretched his grin even wider than it was. I was still leaning against the door, willing my heart beat to slow down. Then I shook my head and turned around to leave. As I opened the door I suddenly stopped and turned my head towards the man behind me. "You're fucking out of your mind, asshole" I muttered and then went out of the room, closing the door as I went. I heard Grimmjow shouting something about seeing me later, but didn't bother to react in any way. I know I'll have to come back here but it won't be until after a few days.

As I got out of the building I saw Renji's red car in the parking lot. I walked to it and opened the passenger door, basically throwing myself in.

"Whoah, have a little mercy for my car or get the hell out!" Renji yelled but started the engine anyway. I didn't respond but let out a long sigh and looked out of the window at the KASKY building. The blue haired fucktard, also known as Grimmjow, was seriously fucking with my head and I didn't like it. And I must be a goddamn masochist bacause I let him do it and didn't kill him for it. I don't know what I'm doing. Renji glanced at me and then turned his gaze back on the road.

"So, time to tell what kind of suffering you went through there, right? Or you wanna wait 'till we pick up Rukia?" I looked at Renji and made a sound indicating that I'll tell later once Rukia was also there. I guess it will be okay to tell what I went through in this first day. I'll give them their sick enjoynment but no way in hell I'll tell _everything_ that has happened. And since the first day was already like this, I'm not sure if I'll survive through this whole thing...

* * *

**Oh man I just made my personal record with the length of this chapter.. And now I feel like dying… I hope this is not too long. I actually thought of putting it up here in two parts, but as you can see I didn't.. I'm feeling a bit nervous about your responses..**  
**It wasn't my intention to make Ichigo and Grimmjow have some kind of sick progress in their relationship yet, but it just kinda wrote itself so I thought that what the hell, let's just go with the flow.. :D **

**So what did you think about this chappy? Worse than the first one? And if so, then in what way? (Oh yeah, I'm curious as hell! But what can I say)**

**In the next ch I'm going to kick things forward~**

**But anyways, any kind of review is absolutely awesome and **_**more**_** than welcome :)**

**~Frichikiras**


	3. The price of negligence

**(Edit: What the hell is up with my hands writing 'plain' instead of 'plane'? I think I'm going to cut them off.. Would serve them right, HAH!)  
**

**Finally, a chapter! And: my finals are over! *does the Ikkaku-lucky-dance* I know I fucked up math, but I don't care.. I hate math from the bottom of my poor heart, so.. .**

**And I'm sorry it took so long for me to write this chapter.. No other excuses than that goddamn school. OTL But now it's over, so~  
I hope the length of this ch will make up for it a little? Just a little bit.. :)**

**Warnings: Bad language, stupidity, typos and grammatical errors **_**and**_** something drastic and sad is about to happen..  
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.**

**In this chappy we'll finally get to invade other character's heads to hear about their thoughts as well! Sometimes just to get another opinion on things or to see what to expect from a certain character in the later chapters (=how I'm going to make them act in this fic). Sometimes the story actually goes forward while I'm harassing somebody else's poor mind. Ichigo's will still be the main POV but I'll make short (or a little longer) visits to others.. And when I do so, I'll let you now~ AND if there's no mention whose POV it is (after that grey line-thingy), then it's the same point of view than in the previous part.  
**

**Anyway, let's start. Enjoy :)**

* * *

**Chapter 3: The price of negligence**

* * *

**Ichigo's POV**

"Oh just shut up already, Rukia.." I groaned as I lounged on a sofa in one of our favorite cafés in Karakura. It was nice and small, the atmosphere there was welcoming and their café lattes were out of this world. Well actually the main reason why we always came here was that Renji wanted to see the waiter, who was a cute green-haired girl.

It was warm and sunny, the ideal weather basically, but deep in my mind there was dark and stormy as hell.

It was the day after the one when I was forced to jump out of a plain for the first time. Yeah I know we were supposed to meet in the same day, but Rukia called Renji and told that her beloved _nii-sama_ had told her to attend to this meeting they were about to have. Apparently it concerned a part of the Kuchiki co, Sode no Shirayuki, which was one day going to be led by Rukia. Good for her, she's going to swim in money. Well she was rich already as the Kuchiki family in general was wealthy as hell. By the way, I know she almost worships his big brother, but still.. Nii-_sama_? Seriously.

So here I was, surrounded by cackling laughter, wearing a huge scowl on my face, as usual. Renji and Rukia found the story of my previous day extremely amusing. Well Renji's laugh stopped abruptly when I told about Rangiku's huge ass breasts and her habit of trying to suffocate people with them. The fucker was jealous. Oh I would have rubbed it into his face if I wouldn't have disliked Rangiku's actions so much. Rukia found my story and Renji's reaction funny whereas I sure as hell didn't so in my opinion this whole thing is pure shit. But I guess I deserve it, because.. Wait. Now that I think about it properly.. No, I fucking don't deserve this. My _friends_ are just being assholes at the moment. No, they're _always_ assholes.

Rukia wiped tears of pure joy from her eyes as she finally stopped laughing. She sighed contently, then looked at me suggestively and cleared her voice.

"So.. Did anything else happen? You know, like.. Were there any nice looking girls besides Rangiku..? Or guys?" There she went again, laughing her ass off. She was obsessed with yaoi and I, of course, was the one to suffer from it. I haven't told them about the episodes with Grimmjow and I sure as hell am not going to. Ever. I could imagine the gleam in that woman's eyes and the devilish smile the information would create. I shuddered. No way, I'm not going to tell. Besides, it's not like there's anything to tell about, he was just.. I relived the moment in Grimmjow's office. His words and expressions hit me again like a train. "I'll let ya slip this time, but next time ya might not be so lucky." Hmm, yeah nice. I'm screwed.

* * *

Later that day we went to kill some time at a local park. It was a nice evening, so all three of us decided not to go home yet. Once we got there Rukia spotted a big tree and declared that she wanted to climb to it. Both Renji and I rolled our eyes but followed her anyway.

The park was located near a lake, so we had a nice view of the sunset. Renji and Rukia were talking about something trivial whereas I just enjoyed the moment. Even though I always scowled and yelled at my friends, the truth was that I really loved them. In a friendly and manly way, of course. It was nice just to lie on the grass, listening to birds as they sang and just feel the light wind caressing your skin. My mind was light and I felt content.

My happytime was interrupted when I heard Rukia squealing so loud that it hurt my ears. I rolled to my stomach to see what was happening and actually let a faint smile tug up my lips. Renji was pulling Rukia's leg to get her down from the tree, probably to get revenge on something Rukia had said. I decided not to interfere and shifted my eyes to look at the lake and the beautiful sunset, which was coloring the sky with different shades of red, orange and pink.

I followed two persons as they walked along the coastline, holding hands. Well wasn't that sappy or what. I couldn't tell who they were because of the sunlight behind them made their figures black as a shadow. My eyes kept absently following them until something woke my interest in one of the two figures. If I saw right, it looked like the other would have had a sword or something. I blinked my eyes to get rid of the blurriness and looked again. Yeah, it still looked like a sword.

"Hey, you two, look at those two over there" I pointed my finger at the right direction.

Renji stopped his tickle-attack on Rukia to look at where my finger was pointing. Rukia was still giggling but turned her head to the same direction as well.

"Yeah, what about them?" Renji asked when I didn't say anything but just kept pointing my finger.

"Huh? Oh yeah, tell me, doesn't it look like the other would have a sword or something with him?" It was a he, that I was able to tell. But about the other one.. I wasn't so sure. Might be a feminine he or a she, who knows?

"Oh, it really looks like it, cool" Renji said with a grin. Rukia just glanced at the red-haired man and then shifted her gaze back at the two lovebirds.

"Isn't that kind of a mood spoiler? I mean, if you were having a romantic dinner with somebody, who would suddenly start to run around with gun.. I don't know. But still, to me that's somewhat weird." Rukia thought aloud.

I hummed in agreement and kept looking at the man with the sword. Somehow he reminded me of somebody, but I couldn't tell who. Renji and Rukia shifted their attentions to somewhere else but I was still bothered with the sword dude. Just when I was going to let it be a thought hit me.

"Fuck!" I abruptly got to my feet and started to walk towards the shore.

"Oi, Ichigo, where the hell are you going?" Renji yelled after me but I didn't answer. If only my conjecture is right..

I felt like a ninja when I crouched behind a bush to get a better look at the two without being noticed. But of course I managed to step on a branch which made a loud cracking sound. I held my breath hoping I wasn't detected. As if.

"Yeah yeah, Ichigo you can come out of the fucking bush. I saw your sorry ass already when you tried to sneak down here."

Shit. I felt heat creeping its way on my face and knew that I had gained a massive blush. Oh man, this is embarrassing. I stood up and took a good look at the two. Even though I already had a hunch who they were, my jaw still dropped a bit when I recognized the two as Ikkaku and Yumi. The one mentioned later stared at me with a pleasant smile.

"Oh, nice to see you Ichigo. But I'd like to know what were you doing in that bush?" Just the question I wanted to answer.

"Well I just.." I trailed off when I realized I didn't have any believable excuse for my idiotic actions. I just stared like a fucking moron and waited for death to end my misery.

Well death didn't come but Renji did and Rukia was running after him.

"Ichigo, what the hell?" Renji asked as he reached my side. Yeah, ask a little more about this already awkward situation you goddamn bastard! I didn't answer, which was obvious. At least to me.

Rukia, however, turned out to be my savior as she took the attention away from me. "Who are you guys? Do you know Ichigo?" She asked and every now and then glanced at the (turned out to be) wooden sword, which Ikkaku was carrying.

Ikkaku tore his eyes off of my humiliated face and looked at Rukia with a wide grin.

"Yeah we know the Berry. He's the newest addition to our skydiving club. Poor guy" He laughed and threw an arm around Yumichika's shoulders. Yumi smiled at Rukia and nodded.

That got my attention. "Hey wait, I'm not a part of your fucking club or anything. It's supposed to be a skydiving class or something, right? Where you jump a couple of times and then that's it."

Ikkaku's grin faltered a little and then he threw his head back with a cackling laughter. That bastard, what the fuck was so funny about what I said? Yumi turned his head to the side and giggled and then looked back at me.

"Oh, is that what Grimmjow told you? You filled some papers right? Did you read what was written in them?" He asked with an amused tint to his voice.

My face paled. What? I was about to say my thought aloud but didn't have the chance as Yumi continued.

"You, my dear Ichigo, are a full member of our club. There's no such thing as a school or class or whatever in KASKY. That's why we don't have the simulator either. And that's why you were forced to jump with Grimmjow. The reason though why Grimmjow took you in the club, when you don't have any experience in skydiving, is unclear to me."

"What? W-what the fuck, that grinning bastard, what the hell his name was.. Ichimaru, or something, talked about us being classmates when I first met him! He didn't say anything that there's no such thing!" I yelled in confusion. Oh fuck there's no way I could be a member to that fucking club or whatever they called it.

Ikkaku kept laughing and Yumi giggled. "You believe Gin? Oh, poor you" I felt hopeless. I turned to my friends to see that devilish glint in Rukia's eyes. Urgh, now what.

"Did he.. umm.." Rukia looked at Yumi, silently asking his name.

"Oh, forgive my rudeness, my name is Yumichika and this is Ikkaku" Yumi said between giggles. I was planning different ways to kill both of them. It would be a slow and painful death.

Rukia's face brightened for a second in acknowledgement only to take that smirking expression again, which didn't promise anything good for me. She turned towards me.

"So, did Yumichika just tell me that you didn't jump alone? That you jumped tandem? With another man?"

Oh not this..

"Rukia, what the hell" I groaned and turned my head away. Ikkaku wanted to deepen my awkwardness and was about to make good progress in it. He seemed to understand why Rukia was so interested about the fact that I had been tied to another man.

"Oh yeah he jumped with our unofficial leader, Grimmjow. Damn he is a good looking guy, let me say that. And he seems to have taken a liking to our Ichi" He stared right into my wide eyes as he said those words.

"What? WHAT? Oh shut up baldy, you don't know what you're dealing with!" I fumed at ikkaku. He seriously didn't. When that woman saw anything that had something to do with that yaoi-shit, she would turn into a fangirl-beast. Then an idea hit me. I smirked. Damn, this was going to save me.

"Hmm, Rukia, you do know that Ikkaku and yumi are a couple, right?" Rukia's head snapped towards me and then to the two fucktards in front of us. I sighed. How stupid can she be? They were walking on the beach, holding hands and everything and.. My thoughts were cut off when a fist was slammed to my shoulder. I yelped at the pain it caused.

"Idiot, of course I knew! I have eyes!" Rukia shouted and then smiled smugly. "And I was having an inner fangirl-moment before I heard that my beloved friend might also have something going on. Tell me, Ichigo, why didn't you tell us that you jumped tandem? Do you have something to hide?"

Okay, now what. How can I explain why I might have left some parts untold from my story.. If I tell the truth, hell will come on earth. If I try to change the subject, I won't even have to tell anything about Grimmjow, she'd figure it out herself. And then hell would come on earth anyway.

I shrugged and turned my red face away. "Dunno, guess I just forgot. It's not important considering the whole picture, so.." I hoped that would satisfy her and at the same time cursed my never-ending tendency to blush.

Rukia was quiet for a moment and then when she was about to open her mouth, I cut her off before she could say a word.

"You know Rukia, don't. Just don't." Without saying anything else, I turned away and walked away, leaving my friends and those two behind. I hate beaches and sunsets and stuff.

* * *

It was getting dark so I decided to walk home. After I left those bastards behind, Renji tried to call me. I ignored his call. Then he sent me a text, telling me he was sorry for everything. I ignored his text message. I'm so tired of this already.

Besides, what the hell am I going to do with that club thing? Is a situation like this even possible? Is it possible to just drop out? Then again I will be forced to pay for it, so maybe I should just suck it up and keep going there until I feel like I can stop without having thoughts about wasting money for nothing. But I think that the membership will be so expensive (yeah, I didn't read the fucking paper, so I don't know) that I'll be forced to jump _many_ times and I'm not sure if I'm able to maintain my mental stability when surrounded by those dickheads. And especially by that one blue-haired asshole, who keeps harassing me.

I sighed and kicked a tin can as I walked along an empty road. I'm too young to deal with this shit. Or too lazy.

The air was humid and it seemed that it was going to rain soon so I hastened my walk. Where went the nice warm wind and the birds and all? Down the toilet, like my good mood.

As I reached our front door I stopped and took a deep breath. My dad was the most fucked up person there was. He fucking attacks his own son! And I knew he was in there, getting ready to kick my face in. But I happened to be a quite good fighter (due to my dad and the many fights in school because of my damned hair color) so I knew that the one getting beaten up was not going to be me. But it still demanded concentration because I didn't know where he would attack.

My scowl deepened and I opened the door only to slam it back closed as I saw a glimpse of my dad running towards me. Fuck, I really don't want to deal with this right now. Goatface slammed against the door and cried out something about his son being so cruel. I huffed and opened the door again. There he was on the floor clutching to his nose, which was bleeding.

"Ichigo, my son.. umpf!" I kicked him to his side, stepped over him and walked away.

"Yuzu, Karin! I'm going to my room, don't disturb me, okay?" I shouted over my shoulder as I walked up the stairs. "Okay. Oh, but do you want something to eat first?" Yuzu's head popped from the living room. I smiled and waved her off. "No need, good night Yuzu"

Her smile faltered and she looked down for a second until she lifted her eyes back to look at me. Then she ran to me and wrapped her little arms around my waist. I chuckled and ruffled her hair.

"Good night, onii-chan" With that she once again smiled at me and then went back to the living room.

I don't know how Yuzu is able to keep that cheerful personality of hers but I'm so glad that she does. Our mother died a long time ago and now she has taken over the position of a mother. For example she almost always cooks our meals. Everybody does offer their help to her, but she refuses to have any. And it seems that she likes to cook, so I guess it's okay. I still hope that she won't overdo it.. She's so young after all.

I walked to my room and closed the door. With a prolonged sigh I dropped onto my bed and buried my face into a pillow. I just want to sleep and ponder over everything tomorrow. I was too tired to even change my clothes so I just lay on my bed, waiting for sweet sleep to take me away. If Yuzu knew, she would scold me. I smiled warmly into the pillow and then drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**Gin's POV**

For a creative mind like mine, being bored is the worst punishment. Normally I can come up with different ways to amuse myself, but oddly enough it seems that everybody at KASKY keep avoiding me or act overall cautiously when I enter the scene. I can't understand why it is like this. I thought that maybe I smell bad. To test my hypothesis, I once hid a fish under my shirt to see if it would create a different reaction.

Well okay, I just wanted to see how uncomfortable the others would become. With a serious face I visited everybody and made sure to lean close, so that the smell of the fish would make it to their noses. Grimmjow's reaction was the funniest, even though I thought he'd like fish since he reminds me of a cat. And cats like fish, don't they? Still, I didn't know his face could twist so much.

After I had milked every drop of amusement from my idea, I really had to take the shirt off. It smelled like death and it was starting to get harder to breathe when wearing it. Though I still wanted to do something with it so later I hid the smelling shirt (and the fish) into Yumichika's locker.

It took days to get the smell away from the building. Today I'm not allowed to bring any food to the club area. I didn't get an answer to my original question, but I did learn that Grimmjow doesn't act like an average cat would. Maybe I should bring him a ball of yarn and see what happens.

But the last time I arrived to the KASKY grounds, a flash of bright orange met my eyes. I was delighted: a new member. And after I learned that he was _forced_ to come here, I was even more delighted. When I noticed that he was easily embarrassed and blushed easily, I took the time to dance a happydance in my head.

This young boy would bring some light to my days every time I come here.

I immediately started to think different ways to play around with our newest member. As I once wandered around the building, trying to get ideas, my eyes landed on the air conditioning system.

No, I couldn't use it anymore. I once put tear gas in it because I was curious about how fast a person would react to the gas. And what would it look like to an outsider. It wasn't easy to get the gas into the air conditioning system without being detected and it took some careful planning. But it was well worth it. The others didn't seem to appreciate my practice of entertainment but luckily they didn't have any proof that it was me… until Ikkaku found my gasmask from my locker. I ended up running, fast.

Afterwards Grimmjow threatened me to "stop screwing around with the members or I'll cut yer throat!" So boring, ne?

But now with this Ichigo around, I think I can have some fun. I want to see what kind of situations I can put him into. Besides, Grimmjow haven't said a word about him (he came in _after_ his threat), so I won't get in trouble even if I tease him a little. I wonder what would make him the most uncomfortable… Today the members were about to come here again, so I'm going to see that orange-haired youth. Maybe I should play with him today. What should I do..

Then a light bulb lit above my head. For this to work, I need to keep my ears and eyes sharp to catch the right moment. I wonder where I have put my camera… I'd like to take a picture of Ichigo's reaction.

I walked to my locker and rummaged through it to find my camera. It should be around here somewhere. Or maybe I should just take Rangiku's and tell that it has gone missing if she asks something.. Then I'll return it someday. She won't mind.

* * *

**Rangiku's POV**

Oh, did you see that lovely new boy? He's such a cutie! The first reaction I had when I saw him was that I want to stuff him into a bottle and put him in my bookshelf. And then I could take him out of it whenever I want and cuddle with him! And if he'd try to escape I'd just put him back into the bottle and forbid him from any food for a day.

It isn't considered illegal, is it? Because, in my opinion, everybody has the right to decorate their house like they please, right? And of course I'd remember to dust his bottle so that he'd have a clear view out…and so that _I'd_ have a clear view in..

And I have to make him drink with us sometime! I believe that deep down Ichigo has the urge to do the naughty with me and that's why he wouldn't want to stop staring at my perfect self, but out of politeness he keeps his hands and eyes away.

When I first met him I thought I'd give him a peek at what could be his for a night as I hugged him tightly, but his morals didn't allow him to act the way he would have wanted. Well there were others around us, so maybe that was the reason. So a little bit of sake might bring out his true nature.

I can't wait.

I giggled at my own thoughts as I walked towards our small club building. I wonder if Gin is here already. I can't understand how he is able to be everywhere so early. I, on the other hand, am almost always late, but in a classy way of course. It's not that I'm lazy or anything, I just want to take my time on things. This time my manicure ended earlier than usually, so I decided to come here.

I opened the door and stepped in.

"Gin? Are you here?" No answer so I started to look for him. As I got to the room where our lockers were, Gin walked towards me, fixing his shirt.

"How come yer 'ere so early, Rangiku?" He sang and stopped in front of me when he couldn't get past because I was blocking his way.

"My manicure ended so.. Gin, what were you doing?" I suddenly asked as I studied his grinning face. We were old friends so I had a hunch every time he was up to something, even though he was extremely hard to read.

Gin looked at me and his smile got wider.

"Wha' do ya mean? Nothin', I was just tryin' to get past ya 'cause this room's got a funny vibe to it" With that he slipped past me and padded away. I just stared at his back, wondering where he might be going but didn't ask. He wouldn't answer anyway.

I turned around and took my locker's key from between my breasts. As I was going to open my locker, my eyes shifted to the table where my camera should be. It wasn't there. How is this possible, I'm sure I left it there last time.

I ran out of the room and got a glimpse of Gin's retreating back before it disappeared outside. I followed him and put my head out of the door.

"Gin! My camera isn't on the table. Do you happen to know where it is?" I shouted to him. Gin stopped on his tracks and stayed still for a moment. Then he turned slowly and looked at me through his slitted eyes.

"Maa, Rangiku, how should I know? Ya shouldn' be so careless of yer own things" He waved his hand and turned around to walk away.

I pouted and was about to argue but decided not to. Now that Gin went somewhere, I was alone. Maybe I should help the others and start packing our things. No, I think I'll go take a nap on the couch and wait for someone else to come here and do the job. Hopefully that 'someone' would be the cute orange head..

* * *

**Ichigo's POV**

Here I was again, standing in front of the Karakura Skydiving –club's building. I'm going to kill that blue-haired fucktard. Why didn't he say anything to me, when I was filling the papers, that I was actually joining a fucking _club?_

I huffed in agitation and kicked a rock. I started making my way towards the front door.

I really hope that Yumi ja Ikkaku will keep their mouths shut about the day before yesterday. I don't really look forward to being humiliated by my failed ninja-spy-moves back then. I'm not in the mood for that.

I took my phone out from my pocket to check the time. The background image reminded me of my idiot friends. Renji called me again yesterday and I decided to stop acting like a ten-year-old brat and answered the phone. Nothing special about the call, I called him an asshole and he said he was sorry. The thing is I don't know why he was the one to apologize; he had been the only one who didn't get involved in that tandem-crap talk. The reason why I still called him an asshole was because he, in general, was one.

I was just going to open the door to go in to the building when a hand on my shoulder stopped me. I looked behind me and the sight of that grinning face scared the shit out of me.

"Oh my, I was just goin' in 'n wha' do I find.." He cooed.

I just looked at him with disgust and didn't respond.

"That look on yer face, it's hurtin' my feelings, ya know" He cocked his head, keeping his hand on my shoulder.

"Oh, well that's just too bad for you" I slapped his hand off and turned around to open the door. I didn't want to have a fucking conversation with this creepy-ass man.

This time he didn't try to stop me but as I walked I could tell he was following me. It was getting on my nerves.

"What? Why are you following me?" I asked and emphasized my frustration by throwing my hands up in the air.

"Followin'? I'm just goin' to the basement to feed my sex slaves." He grinned and opened his eyes a little to show his icy blue eyes. Even though I have seen his eyes once before, they still make me gape at their cold color… No, wait. What did he say? And what did I just _think_?

"Huh?" I looked at him with wide eyes before it sunk in what he had said. Okay now I feel stupid. My face was nice and red as I turned around and left. There wasn't even a goddamn basement in here.

* * *

**Gin's POV**

This was going to be so good. I smiled widely as I watched Ichigo's retreating back as he stomped away from me. Now he was agitated enough to be an easy target.

I put my hand on Rangiku's camera, which was under my shirt, as I went to put everything ready for the main event and chuckled as I went.

* * *

Everyone was already putting their equipment together. Ichigo was sitting on the sofa as Grimmjow had told him that he didn't need to do anything this time either. Perfect.

I raised my head and glanced around. Everything seemed to be like it should be.

"Ichigo?" I called him with a singing voice. His head snapped towards me but he didn't respond to me. I still knew I had gained his attention.

"I was thinkin' if ya could do me a favor. I forgot my gloves in the closet at the end of the corridor. Ya mind getting' them fer me?" I smiled sincerely but I think that he won't buy my faked innocence.

"Why the fuck don't you go and get them yourself?" He only snapped at me. He seemed to be mad at me. I have no idea why..

"Maa, I really can't jump without my gloves. Ya don't wanna take my enjoyment from me now do ya?" I whined and tore off my usual grin to replace it with a pout

"What?" Ichigo stared at my pitiful face and then sighed. "Fucking idiot" He mumbled as he got up from the couch. As he disappeared behind the corner, I got up from the floor and followed quietly behind him. Rangiku gave me a look but I just waved her off with the widest grin ever. I think my cheeks are going into a cramp.

I peeked behind the corner to catch Ichigo wandering along the corridor. Aw, how cute, he was really trying to find the right closet to get me my gloves, which actually didn't even exist.

I took Rangiku's camera under my shirt and tiptoed closer. His back was towards me so he didn't see me.

* * *

**Ichigo's POV**

I scratched the back of my neck. That fucking prick. Making others run around fetching his stuff. Besides, I don't recall seeing him with gloves. But then again, I try to avoid him as much as I can so it's possible that I just haven't noticed them. The gloves I mean.

I stopped in front of a door. It seems to be the last door in the end of this corridor so I guess it's the right one. I grabbed the door knob and opened the door.

The sight that welcomed me pierced my brain and made me comatose for a few seconds.

Ikkaku was sitting on a table, leaning back on his hands, growling and grunting lustfully. My eyes went wide as I saw something moving back and forth in his lap. Yumi was kneeling between Ikkaku's legs and was at the moment deep throating Ikkaku and making the bigger man moaning his name.

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

"I.. I'm.. Oh shit" My face was burning and went even redder as Ikkaku slowly turned his half lidded eyes towards me. That was it.

"I'm s-sorry" I stuttered and turned around to close the door when my eyes were assaulted with a bright light.

"What the..?" I threw my hands in front of my face and took a step backwards. I heard a hearty laugh and instantly recognized the voice.

"Gin! You fucking bastard I'm going to snap you in half!" I roared and started running after him.

"Oh my, such harsh words!" He sang while he hurtled towards the front door. He was pretty fast. I guess he has been doing this before – running away I mean.

"Look Rangiku, I found yer camera!" He shouted over his shoulder and waved the mentioned thing in his hand. Rangiku's head shot up and she smiled. Huh? It was a fucking photoflash that made me almost blind? Wait, so he took a picture of me? My anger was multiplied by nine thousand.

"You fucking cock sucker, I'm going to smash that camera to your head!" I fumed and picked up my speed, but was stopped when a hand grabbed my arm.

"What..? Oi, OI!"

* * *

**Gin's POV**

It had worked like a dream. And Rangiku played her part perfectly – even though she didn't know she had one.

"Hands.. AAR! B-OOBS OFF!" I heard Ichigo scream behind me.

"Oh no cutie~ That is my camera and you're not going to break it." Rangiku whined and supposedly had Ichigo in a nice headlock – between her breasts. Don't ask me, I don't know how she does it but when she does, there's no chance of getting away. I know it, I have experienced it.

I laughed openly as I got out from the building and shut the door behind me, silencing the yells that came from inside.

I knew that closet was Ikkaku and Yumi's _place_. So when Ikkaku got that pervy expression on his face and suddenly they both vanished, I knew it was time to put my prank in action.

The grin on my face stretched to impossible widths as I looked at the picture I took. Ichigo's face was priceless. I knew he was going to brighten up my day.

My feet took me to a big rock and I climbed on it and sat down.

I think I'm going to print this out and frame it. Then I'll hang it on the wall where Ichigo will see it every time he comes in.

* * *

**Ichigo's POV**

"Don't just come like that and try to kill me with those..those.." I shrieked but abruptly went silent as I heard a loud crash. Automatically my head turned to the direction where the voice came.

"I just don't get along with that bitch!" Grimmjow fumed as he entered the room. Bitch? Who was he talking about, Rangiku was right behind me so..?

Rangiku leaned closer to me and whispered to my ear. "It's Soifon again" And then giggled when I jerked away from her. I can't help it, it's a reflex.

Grimmjow was scowling fiercely and a menacing aura surrounded him. Nobody had the nerve to ask what had happened between him and the fiery pilot. He sat down on the sofa and sighed loudly, running his hands through his blue hair. Then he suddenly raised his head and locked eyes with me. His whole face stretched as it was taken over by a wide grin.

"C'mere" He waved his index finger in front of his face, beckoning me to come to him.

"Huh? Why?" I asked stupidly. Why did he always wear that damn grin?

"Because I have something for ya to do. S'not like ya can always just sit around watching others" Well, he had a point. I raised an eyebrow, silently asking him to continue.

"We'll go help that one fucking moron with her plane. She keeps whining about some shit and I don't wanna listen to it alone. So yer gonna suffer with me." He got up from the sofa and started walking towards the front door. "Ya coming?" He asked and looked at me over his shoulder. I just nodded and followed him.

Maybe, just maybe he could act like a normal human being.

* * *

"What? Hell no I'm going to get up on your shoulders" I don't care if one or two of the plain's lights don't work but this is a definite no. End of the conversation.

Grimmjow just glanced at me and then sighed. "Well I guess it's okay if the police starts to compl.." I interrupted him by throwing my hands up and yelled "Okay okay, fine.." My voice got lower and a smirk crept up on my face. It's not bad if I screw around a little, right?

"Kneel down." Grimmjow's grin faltered because of my strict order and he looked at me with wide eyes. I didn't think I'll ever see him like that.

"The Berry wants me to go down on my knees? I wouldn't have guessed ya had a pervy side to ya, but I think I like it." He was again smiling widely as he walked in front of me and kneeled. I laughed a little.

"Now remember this. _This_ is the way you should act whenever I'm around." I think I'm beginning to learn how to handle him.

"Yeah? Being humble in front of my master?" He joked and looked at me from the ground.

"Bastard. But yeah." I laughed as I placed my hands on his head and sat on his shoulders. Grimmjow grabbed my thighs and carefully stood up. "Ya okay?" He asked as he got all the way up. I just hummed in response.

"Guess that's a yes" He said and walked closer to the old plane.

While I was changing the broken led lamps, a thought hit me. It actually made me a bit annoyed. No, _a lot_ annoyed.

"Hey, when I signed that one paper last time, what did I actually agree to?" I asked as I was fumbling with the tiny light bulbs. The bigger man under me kept quiet so I continued.

"Because, you see, I heard somewhere that there is no such thing as a class or school or whatever here. That I actually joined your club as a permanent member. I really do hope, for your own health, that this is not true." I actually succeeded to sound threatening, usually I failed miserably at it.

Grimmjow cleared his throat. "Well.. Where did you hear that?" Was he nervous? Whoa..

"It's not important. But the thing is that you and Gin were both bullshitting me and it pisses me off. I sure as hell didn't want to join a club or anything. Besides, why the hell did you want me to join your stupid club when I don't even have any experience in skydiving?" My anger was starting to get the better of me.

The blue-haired bastard actually looked up at me and, to my surprise, he looked really confused.

"Gin? What the hell does he have to do with this?" Huh? They weren't both in this?

"What? He was the first one I met here and when I started to talk to him about this _class_ he just said that we'd be classmates or something. He didn't correct me, so I thought.." I trailed off. I really did think these two fucktards were together behind this.

"I didn't talk to him about this.. But to think that he actually thought the same thing as me." He barked a laugh. "Interesting, I'm starting to like him more!" Then his face went serious, almost angry. "As long as he's not competition.."

"Hey, don't try to change the subject you fucking idiot" I hit him in the head, making him grunt at the sudden pain. I chose to ignore his previous words about competition.

"Guess I deserved that..." He moved his hand to rub the sore spot before grabbing my leg once again.

"You sure as hell did. How are you going to make this up to me? Now I'm forced to come here who knows how many times. " I huffed in my anger and frustration. Grimmjow just shrugged and then looked at me, his eyes full with twisted amusement.

"Well that was kinda the idea behind this. I'm so fucking glad ya didn't read the paper. When I saw ya for the first time I instantly decided that yer gonna join our club – whether ya like it or not" He grinned smugly. So he was actually proud of his actions? I can't believe he can be such a fucking jerk..

"So you really are not even trying to explain yourself out of this shit? I think I want to kill you." Maybe I should break one if these tiny bulbs and try to slice his throat with it.

"Why should I? When there's a fine piece of ass coming to us – to me, it's fucking natural for me to want to get my hands to it." He was actually being serious about this.

I stared the back of his head in disbelief. Even though I had known him only for a short period of time, I knew he was a fucking ass. But for him to be _such_ an ass… For a brief moment I had thought he could act more like a normal person. That I could actually talk to him without him instantly trying to harass me. I felt a little disappointed, to tell the truth. He deceived me into joining their fucking club and he was actually proud of it? And I was such an idiot to fall for it. Or maybe I was just overreacting? No, I don't think so.

I angrily pushed myself off of his shoulders. "What the fuck do you want from me, huh? I fucking loathe you!" I roared as I turned to leave but was stopped by a hand on my arm.

Rage flared inside of me and I tried to swat his hand away with an angry yell, but instead I was thrown against the fuselage of the plane. I winced when my back slammed against the hard material and slumped a little. Grimmjow walked in front of me and looked down on me, his face looking serious but his cyan eyes were glinting with something else, I couldn't tell what it was.

"Yer asking me what I want form ya? Are ya acting stupid or.." He was cut off by a female's voice yelling from behind the plane.

"Grimmjow Jaegerjaques!" The blue-haired man's lip curled in a snarl and he tore his eyes off of me to face the woman calling his name. I frowned and looked at his back. What the hell was the fucktard about to say…

"What?" He yelled in rage towards the direction of the female voice and spread out his hands for emphasis.

It was the pilot. Soifon, was it? She walked to Grimmjow and stared at him with narrowed eyes. "Are the lights working again?"

"Yes, they are. Now, would ya just fuck off, I had something important going on here." He glanced at me and I scowled at him.

"No, I won't. There's something about the engine that should be fixed. I only came here to tell you to call Starrk so that he can come here. I won't even bother to ask for you to look at it since you're such an inefficient wimp." Her eyes bore holes through Grimmjows head and if his posture was any indication, he was also furious as fuck. Actually I don't even have to look at his posture to know that he's so pissed off that he could shit sticks.

"Ya can shove yer problems up yer ass for all I care. I don't have time to listen yer bitching. As I told before; fuck off. No actually.." Grimmjow bellowed and then turned to me. "Get up, Berry" He gestured me to get on my feet. I actually hadn't noticed that I had sat down. Not feeling the urge to argue at the moment, I stood up and raised an eyebrow in silent question.

My question was answered as Grimmjow suddenly grabbed my arm and started to drag me away from the beast of a woman. Why do I feel like I've lived this dragging-scenario before…?

I pulled my hand away from his grasp, making him turn to me. I scowled at him. "You know I can walk by myself. You don't have to guide me." I grumbled and averted his gaze.

"Ya wouldn't have followed me if I had asked ya to and ya know it." He stated and continued to walk towards the club building. I rolled my eyes but kept walking behind him.

* * *

We didn't get far when suddenly Rangiku ran to us, waving her hand furiously above her head. Grimmjow stopped walking and I, deep in my own thoughts, almost succeeded to bump into his back.

"Why the hell are ya running like that?" Grimmjow asked. He seemed to have calmed down a little from his anger. I wonder how long it will last until he's roaring again.

Rangiku stopped in front of him and breathed heavily. "I.. I just.." She was out of breath. Can't blame her; try to run with those boobs attached to your body and see if you are out of breath.

Grimmjow was getting annoyed once again. "Yeah? Ya what?" He tapped his foot against the ground.

The two breasts, which had a woman grown behind them, took a deep breath and then straightened her posture. "Gin told me that he'd seen a weather forecast, which told that in about three hours it would start raining quite a lot. So if and when we're going to jump today, we should hurry.

I glanced at Grimmjow, who was now frowning and rubbing his chin. Even though my fear of heights wasn't as bad as it was, I didn't want to be midair when it would start pouring down.

Grimmjow met my gaze and pointed a finger at me. "We _will_ have our conversation, Berry"

With that he started jogging towards the worn out building and yelled: "Don't just stare there, Rangiku. Move yer ass so that we can get going!" Then he abruptly stopped, brought his hands to his mouth and yelled towards the plane: "Soifon, get the fucking plane ready, we're leaving in five minutes!" Without waiting an answer he once again headed towards the building.

I stood there for a while, but then decided to follow the two of them. It's not like I'd have anything better to do.

* * *

We were sitting on the plane, which was taking off. The sky was getting darker but because Grimmjow was hell-bent on the fact that we were going to jump today, the impending storm didn't matter. I didn't have a good feeling about it, but nobody's going to listen to me anyway, so I just kept my mouth shut. It was almost the same as last time; Ikkaku was grinning, Rangiku was trying to hug me, Yumi was giggling at Rangiku's efforts, Gin was being Gin and Grimmjow was watching me from the opposite side of the plane. Yeah, I wasn't seated between Rangiku and Grimmjow like last time. Now the other one beside me was Yumi, not Grimmjow. Rangiku insisted that she wanted to sit beside me, so…here the bitch was.

I just rolled my eyes between snapping at her and tried to avoid being touched by her. I just can't get my head around her. Why the hell does she feel like she has to be all over me? And it's constant.

"I do not fucking want you to glue yourself on me, so please just stop already!" I said one word at a time, making sure that it sounded like I was talking to someone who didn't have the brain to understand normal speech. Oh, but that actually was the case. How ironic.

She pouted her lips and crossed her arms over her chest, making her breasts almost bursting out of her shirt. "Ichi, you're so mean" I didn't even bother answering that.

The rest of the flight went in a surprisingly relaxed manner until all of a sudden a loud crash was heard from the front of the plane. My eyes went wide and my head snapped at the direction, just like everyone else's too.

"What the hell? Soifon?" Grimmjow frowned when suddenly the plane swung abruptly to the left, making Rangiku, Yumi and me fall to the floor. Yumi scrambled back to our bench whereas Rangiku stayed on the floor, her eyes wide in terror. I took a hold on a metal bar and squeezed it so hard my knuckles were white. This wasn't happening. This can't be happening. It must be turbulence or something. I chanted in my head as panic was starting to engulf me. My almost defeated fear of heights made a grand comeback. I knew we were high enough, almost 900 meters from ground level, to make some serious wreckage if we were about to crash. Unless Soifon would be able to make a miraculous landing.

The whole plane was shaking. I could faintly hear Grimmjow yelling Soifon's name. I glanced up to see him standing in front of the door, which took to the cockpit and where Soifon was. He was trying to hold on to something so that he wouldn't fall down.

Another loud crash. I heard Rangiku scream and I scrunched my eyes closed, trying to separate my terror-filled mind from the current happenings. My heart was racing. I could hear my heart beating and my breathing was quick and shallow.

I could feel the plane starting to dive down nose first and it was shaking violently. I let out a strangled gasp as I realized what really was going to happen.

Please, oh dear God. Don't let it end this way. Don't let this be the end on everything.

* * *

**Yumichika's POV  
(kept replaying this song while I wrote this part: http: / www. youtube. com/ watch?v= im5CIpMFo4Q )**

It was so quiet. Only the harsh wind was making noise.

I slowly opened my eyes and tried to look around me.

The plane was in pieces, actually, a part of the left side of the plane wasn't even there. I parted my lips and inhaled shakily. There was trash and dust everywhere, the air was thick. Pale beams of light from the cloud-covered sun danced in the wrecked aircraft…

Our plane had crashed.

I relived the moments which felt like they happened just a few minutes ago. But I couldn't tell how long I had been unconscious. My mind was fuzzy and my eyelids felt heavy. This can't be happening.

Where are we?

I looked out of a shattered window. All I saw was tree trunks and leaves and bushes. We must have landed into a forest. So Soifon wasn't able to find a field to land on. But at least she succeeded to bring the plane down without the aircraft exploding and killing us all at the same time. Talking about us:

Is everyone okay?

I tentatively moved my limbs. It didn't hurt too much so I think I hadn't broken any bones or worse. Thank god.

I licked my bruised and dry lips and opened my mouth, trying to force a sound from my throat. Nothing. Only a hoarse wheeze came out. I settled to only glance around to look for the others.

I saw Grimmjow lying on the floor. My eyes widened; his body looked limp. He looked… I tried not to panic but squinted a little and held my breath. I centered my scattered thoughts on staring at his body – to see if there are any movements. Seconds felt like hours, but finally I was able to see it; his chest was moving – he was breathing. He was alive. I let out the breath I was holding.

Rangiku was near Grimmjow, she was starting to wake up and was moving a little. Ichigo was outside of the plane, lying on the forest floor. But he was moving also. At least they were alive. Thank god.

Then a wave of horror hit me. Ikkaku. He had been sitting on the left side of the plane. _The part, which now wasn't there_. W-where is he. I can't see him.

I leaned forward, trying to get to my feet but fell forward onto all fours. That didn't matter. I crawled forward, looking at the spot where Ikkaku once sat.

My whole body shook. My head pounded. My heart wrenched.

"Y-yumi…?" A faint voice called me. It was Rangiku. I didn't answer.

I had reached the other side of the plane and was now watching out in the forest, trying to look for Ikkaku. I didn't see him. I was starting to panic. I frantically looked left, then right.

Finally my eyes caught something black and red. It was his jacket. I stumbled forward and fell out of the plane with a thump. I landed painfully on my side and my arm twisted under me. Tears were stinging in the back of my eyes and I let out a strangled howl. I lied there for a few minutes, breathing heavily and trying to ignore the dull pain of my arm. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced my body to move towards the sight of Ikkaku's jacket. I have to get to him. I need to ensure that he was okay – that he was alive.

As I crawled closer I saw Ikkaku's whole body. He was lying on his stomach on the ground, face turned away from me. I let out a strained laugh between my weeps as relief washed over me. It really was him. I found him.

"I-Ikkaku" I was able to squeeze a weak voice. Ikkaku didn't respond.

Once I got to him I put my hand on his shoulder and put a little pressure on the hand, being careful not to push too hard in case he was hurt.

"Ikkaku" I tried again, this time being able to voice his name out little louder.

He wasn't moving, so I, in my growing panic, tried to turn him over so that I could see his face. It wasn't easy because his unmoving body was heavy and my shaking body wasn't obeying my every command.

My arm hurt and the pounding in my head was getting worse from my struggling to move my lover. A few tears trickled down my cheek and my breathing was heavy and shaky. Finally with a strangled yell I was able to turn him over to his back.

I lifted myself and looked at his face. He was so pale. I gasped in horror as I saw the blood on his forehead.

"…Ikkaku?" I shook his shoulder a little. Silence. Around me there wasn't anything else than silence. Even the birds were quiet – they weren't singing like they ususally would. Maybe it was because the impending storm. Darker clouds were gathering to the sky, making the sunlight fade away. I turned my head back towards my lover and let out a shaky breath.

Why isn't he answering? Why can't he hear me calling his name?

"Ikkaku?" I tried again but got no answer.

He wasn't even moving.

The tears started flowing freely as my desperate calls echoed in the silent forest. No answer. No movement. Nothing.

Then suddenly my crying stopped. I blinked a few timed as I lifted my head and stared into nothingness with glazed eyes. The wind was drying my soaked cheeks and I swallowed hard. I had to do this to make sure that he wasn't…

I moved my trembling hand to his chest and lied still. My eyes went wider and I started to whine, before it turned out into a loud heart wrenching cry. His chest wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing.

My throat burned as I howled his name, praying him to open his eyes. To look at me. To just move his finger to indicate that he was still here with me. Something. Anything. Please…

My whole body was shaking violently from my wailing. I moved my hand on his neck, trying to find a pulse. I forced myself to stop crying, calming myself until I was only sniffing loudly, as I concentrated on feeling his heartbeat.

I couldn't feel it.

Fat, bitter tears poured down my cheeks and I let out a loud scream of desperate agony. I screamed his name over and over again, wrapped my hands around his still frame and refused to let go.

"Ikkaku please, please open your eyes! Don't leave me! Please… D-don't leave me…" I yelled with a broken voice. I knew he wasn't going to answer. He wasn't going to wake up. He wasn't going to take my hand and smile at me, telling everything was alright. Nothing was alright. Everything was…

I felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest. My life was slipping through my fingers. I..

I can't do this.. I.. Without Ikkaku by my side, I don't know what to do. I don't have anything left if… What should I do.. My thoughts whirled in my head.

I looked at his face. He looked…peaceful. His eyes were closed and his lips were parted a little. I buried my face into his jacket.

Darkness and desperation was taking over my heart. I felt empty. I felt alone. Abandoned.

I felt like a dying tree; trying desperately to hold on to life while its leaves were turning red and falling off, its trunk rotting and all life fading, leaving only a hollow core.

My hopeless mind was shattered. My heart was filled with pain. I felt defeated. I couldn't lift a finger.

It started raining. The rainwater mixed with my tears, washing them away. But the pain in my heart couldn't be washed away. It would stay there forever.

I kept quietly repeating his name between my sobs until I felt my consciousness slipping from my grasp.

My vision, blurry from the tears and raindrops, was starting to go black. I didn't have the strength to fight back.

I looked up at the sky, seeing a glimpse of a flock of white doves, flying towards the dark sky. Maybe it was real, maybe it was a hallucination. It didn't matter, nothing did.

My now soaked body went limp as I lied on the forest floor next to my lover, who was never going to wake up from his eternal sleep.

* * *

**So, we had to forget about the fact that this story is supposed to be under the category of "humor". Well it wasn't now. Or maybe it was? It depends on how badly I screwed up writing that last part, hah..**

**I watched all three LOTRs and bawled my eyes out. I always do when I watch them. Too many epic or sad moments in those movies.. And after I had watched the last one of them (The return of the king) and had cried at least for the last half an hour, I had the right mood to write this mentioned last part.  
This also explains why I had listened to that particular song while writing.. The OSTs of those movies are so beautiful~**

**Oh, and as you can see, even though I'm writing in Gin's POV, I won't be writing with that damn accent unless he's talking out loud. It would be hell to write his thoughts and all with it.. T-T**

**What did you think about the way I kept bouncing from a POV to another? I'd like to hear your opinions about that and of course in general what you thought about this chappy :)  
So, reviews, anyone? :)**

**~Frichikiras**


	4. The price of selfishness

**Holy moley! All the reviews, favorites and alerts.. Thank you all SO much!  
It really makes me sooo happy to know that somebody might actually wait for this new chapter to come.. Sheesh, seriously, thanks! :D  
(It also makes me feel guilty for not updating sooner.. I'm sorry OTL)**

**As one could guess, if something like this happened in real life, mental recovering would take time. But because I don't want this story to be filled with too much angst, these people will get over it a little faster. So please, don't point it out if the characters are too happy or something considering the situation. Also, the physical injuries ought to be greater, but hey, I can't make them just lie around being all vegetable-like. That wouldn't be quite as interesting now would it?  
I'm trying to keep it somehow believable though, so please bear with me. (Actually, every time I write I'm fighting with myself so that I won't make this story so ridiculous no-one could take it seriously... The thoughts that sometimes pop into my mind, you know.. *sigh*)**

**Warnings: Bad language, typos and grammatical errors (as always), MAJOR OOCness! I guess..  
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. (I can't come up with something sarcastic enough, so..)**

**Last chapter, poor Grimm was one of those, who didn't get to show us his inner thoughts. Well what do you know, now he's gonna start this chappy~ (Sorry in advance for his angst-crap, I promise it won't be a permanent trait of his)  
I really hope you'll like this ch.. I wouldn't wanna disappoint :F**

* * *

**Chapter 4: The price of selfishness**

* * *

**Grimmjow's POV (Yeargh~!)**

"Grimmjow! Grimmjow wake up!"

I could hear somebody calling my name. But fuck, I feel so worn out I can't even open my eyes.

What the hell happened? Where am I?

I tried to ignore the calls and focused on digging my memories.

Hold on a second. We were in the plane… Then there was the loud crash and I went to shout at Soifon and.. Realization washed over me. Oh my fucking god, we didn't crash did we?

I just listened at the blurry voice calling me. Slowly, as I lay there, I felt energy returning to my limbs. Maybe if I go slow I could.. With that thought I tried to move.

Ouch shit. A sharp pain went through my right shoulder and I noticed my head was pounding furiously.

"Oh fuck my shoulder…and my head.." I mumbled between closed teeth. That _somebody_ next to me moved slightly as I spoke, probably surprised by my sudden words. A hand came to rest on my shoulder.

"Aagh, don't fucking touch it!" The pain woke me up from my numb haze. I was still lying on my stomach, so I slowly turned my head more to the side to see who was beside me. A flash of orange assaulted my eyes. So orange hair, check. Boobs…check? Huh? When did the Berry grow a pair of breasts?

I mentally kicked myself. Fucking idiot, it's Rangiku.

Rangiku stared at my shoulder, her face looking somewhat disgusted.

"Grimmjow your shoulder. It looks deformed, I think it's dislocated."

I would have snorted if the situation and my condition had been a little better. "No shit" I gritted my teeth. It hurt so fucking much, but I didn't complain. I'm a man, I don't do complaining.

"Maybe Yumi could fix it, he was in med-school before he dropped out, but.." She trailed off and was silent for a few seconds. Then she turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. "Oh my god Grimm why is this happening to us." She broke to tears as she uttered those words. I didn't react in any way to her weeps, because crying won't help shit in this situation. It might come across as rude and cold, but it's the truth.

"Everybody okay?" If she only could come up with a coherent answer.

Well she didn't; she started bawling louder. It made my head-ache multiply by ten and it made me irritated.

"Oh shut the fuck up and answer my fucking question! How long have ya been up?" I started to lift myself up with one hand. It hurt like hell but there's no other choice; I can't lie here forever.

Rangiku hiccupped and sniffed. "Yumi.. He.. He's with Ikkaku.. And.. I.. He.." She swallowed a few times before continuing "Ikkaku is…dead, Grimmjow!" I stopped my current doings (getting up) with wide eyes. What? Dead?

"Yumi seems to be doing quite fine physically.. But mentally he's totally devastated." Talking seemed to calm her down because now she was able to form full sentences. She was also talking with her hands, which was a weird but a normal habit of hers. Her voice was shaky and quiet though, but I guess that's totally understandable.

"Gin.. I don't know where he is, I haven't seen him. Ichigo is there" She pointed a finger at the direction where the Berry was lying on his back, eyes wide open. "He's awake, but he refuses to talk to me. Otherwise I guess he's quite okay. And me; my side is a little sore. It feels like somebody had kicked me really hard and.." The rest of her talking went in and out from my ears. Nothing registered.

My eyes were fixated on the Berry lying on the ground. What the hell did I put him through… Guilt rammed against me, leaving me gaping like a fish. This is my fault. In my selfishness I made Ichi join the club against his will and that's why he was on the plane. Shit.. In addition to all this crap he's afraid of heights and…

"Grimm, are you listening to me?" Rangiku asked quietly and leaned towards me to look at the same direction as me while holding a hand on her sore side. I glanced at her and saw her eyebrows furrowing in worry.

She sighed. "I don't know what we should do."

Well neither did I. For a moment I tore my eyes from the Strawberry to look around me. The sight was hopeless. But things could be worse; we could all be dead. Not that I'm forgetting Ikkaku's fate in any way. Even though he was a bastard, he _was_ my good friend. Yes, I am capable of making friends without beating the living shit out of them sooner or later – kind of.

I clenched my teeth and started to get up on my feet. Rangiku's eyes snapped to me and she raised her hands to grab my arm. I waved her off. "Don't touch. I need to get up. Just go to Yumi, try to get him to calm the fuck down if it's possible and then come to me and the Berry. We need to try to find the others and then decide what we're gonna do."

"What about Ikk.." Rangiku sighed without finishing the sentence and put her hands to her face.

"We'll give him a proper burial." My insides turned when I said that. But we really need to do it. It's already totally fucked up to have to bury your friend, but on the practical side of things I don't know how the hell we are going to dig a grave in the first place. My shoulder equals shit at the moment, so…

Rangiku got up and left to the direction where Yumichika's desperate pleading could be heard. I, on the other hand, headed towards the red-haired man on the ground. I put my other hand on my sore shoulder but it didn't ease the pain, rather the opposite since now it hurt even more. Tsk.

"Ber.." No, maybe I should try to call him by his real name? I'll give him a break for now. "Ichi…go?" It felt weird to call him by his real name.

He didn't answer me but he lowered his chocolate eyes to meet my blue ones.

"I… This is a fucking stupid question, but are ya okay? Any bad injuries?" The Berry just quietly stared at me. I didn't know what to do so I just stood there like an ass, waiting for him to answer. Finally he opened his mouth.

"You.. Am I okay? Do I look like I'm okay? Does this whole situation seem like 'it's okay'?" His voice was steady and quiet. A sharp sword, known as guilt, twisted again in my gut as I listened to him. Well if there was a positive side to this moment; I at least he _was_ now speaking..

With a sigh he continued. "I heard Rangiku telling you we lost Ikkaku… Gin is somewhere and.. Shit." His went silent as he moved his gaze to look back at the dark sky. Neither of us said anything until he spoke again.

"How did this happen? Or actually _what_ did happen? Something in the plane broke.. Did it broke whilst we were up there or was there something that needed repairing that wasn't taken care of?" He wasn't really directing the questions at me, but rather thinking out loud. He was trying to get some sense to all this, but was failing at it, which wasn't a surprise. How can you reason a situation like this? Still, his words got to me. _Something that wasn't taken care of._ A faint memory from earlier tugged my subconscious and then plastered its-ugly-self right in front of me.

In the memory I was standing near the plane, Ichi was behind me and Soifon was in front of me. Oh I remember this, we were having an interesting conversation with the Berry when this asshole came and interrupted us. Then the words Soifon uttered made my blood run cold.

"_No, I won't. There's something about the engine that should be fixed. I only came here to tell you to call Starrk so that he can come here. I won't even bother to ask for you to look at it since you're such an inefficient wimp."_

As realization hit me hard in the head, I felt like I was going to vomit. So this means this whole thing is…

I glanced at the Berry who was looking at me. He raised an eyebrow as my face went pale, but didn't ask anything. My mind was in turmoil. This _is_ one hundred percent my fault. I didn't get the fucking engine fixed and look what happened. Fucking fuck, what am I going to do. Normally I wouldn't give a damn if something is my fault – I'd just try to blame somebody else. But this thing here.. Right now, I really feel like shit. I pressed a finger against my forehead and tried to think clearly. Well I guess I should tell everyone about why we crashed. I rubbed my temples and closed my eyes. This won't be pretty.

It started raining and Yumi's heart-breaking cries echoed in the forest, making the whole thing even more miserable than it already were. I reopened my eyes and saw the Strawberry staring at me intently. I averted his gaze and sighed. No, I can't fucking do it. I can't utter those goddamn words. I turned my head upwards, letting the rain hit my face. Soifon was right; I_ am_ an insufficient wimp. And even bigger one for admitting it.

Suddenly my head snapped back towards the redhead on the ground.

"Have ya seen Soifon?" Well we all know Gin is missing but now that I think about it, so is she.

The Berry was clearly trying to think if he had seen her, but apparently it didn't bring any results as he just shook his head.

I looked at the wrecked plane behind me. The front part was totally crushed since it had hit a large tree. My face twisted as a thought popped to my mind. Don't tell me we have to carry out…a double burial.

* * *

**Rangiku's POV**

I slowly walked towards Yumi but stopped a few meters away and looked at the crying bundle on the ground. This is so wrong. They were so happy together. Tears started to flow down my cheeks.

I stood there for a moment gathering myself before I was able to stop crying. Tears wouldn't help Yumi a bit. He needed strong friends to get over this. So I need to be strong for him.

I took a step forward. "Yumi?" The mentioned man hiccupped on the ground and turned his face towards me. His eyes were puffed and red from crying and overall his face looked twisted from grief and pain. I felt so sorry for him.

"Yumi" I called him again, trying to keep my voice as soft and warm as possible. I crouched down beside him and put a tentative hand on his shoulder.

"You'll catch a cold. Come on, let's take you somewhere where you won't be exposed to the rain. I'll make sure Ikkaku will also be moved away from the rain." I know it sounded somewhat cruel, but it's true; he can't be here forever, clutched to his dead lover.

"R-Rangiku, I… I can't do this.." His pleading eyes almost made my composure to break down, but I managed to stay strong. I really have to stay strong in order to help him.

"I know, Yumichika, I know." I said soothingly. "But you know Ikkaku is watching you from above, right? He loves you, he won't ever leave you. Even though he's not physically here, he lives in your heart. His spirit will follow you wherever you go, and one day you will meet him again. You're now living in two different worlds, but it's not enough to break you up." I moved my hand from his shoulder to his head and slowly stroked his head. "His time in this world ended, but it just began in the other. He went there to make sure everything is the way it should be when you arrive. He will wait for you there."

Yumichika stared at me quietly and I was starting to worry if I had said the wrong things. He wasn't crying anymore though. He lowered his gaze to the ground and slowly untangled himself from the physical body of his love. I reached to him and he shifted closer to me and leaned towards me. I wrapped my arms protectively around him and slowly rocked us back and forth.

"Don't worry Yumi. I'll take care of you if you let me, I promise." I said quietly and pressed my cheek against his head. First he didn't answer anything but then with a deep breath he quietly thanked me. I smiled warmly. I'll definitely make sure Yumi will get over this. I will protect him with all I got.

* * *

**Ichigo's POV**

My mind was blank. I guess my subconscious is trying to protect me by making my emotions go totally numb. Well it enables me to think straight though which is important in a situation like this. And I don't want others to worry about me so I guess my current state of mind works just fine. I still have no clue what the hell happened to the plane, but right now it didn't matter. We need to find the others and then start making our way to get the hell out of this forest.

Luckily it seemed that when I was thrown out from the plane, I landed on a rather soft bed of moss. So I wasn't too badly injured, ignoring the slight dull pain on my left leg.

Grimmjow had left me in order to go and see if he could find Soifon. The plane was totally fucked up, but I hope she's okay. Something like this shouldn't happen and I'm afraid what'll happen to my fear of heights as this numbing state of shock clears away. Too many thoughts were occupying my mind so I didn't notice when Grimmjow stumbled back, his face absolutely white. It wasn't until he heavily sat down near me that I lifted my gaze and saw him.

"So, did you find her?" I asked and inwardly expected the worst considering the expression he was wearing.

He didn't answer me so I asked again, this time a little louder.

"She.. Oh fuck Berry I wouldn't even recognize her if I didn't know for sure it _is_ her." He leaned back against a tree and sighed.

I felt sick. I didn't want to ask anything more about it because her fate was more than clear.

We were quiet for god knows how many minutes until Grimmjow turned to me. "Can ya walk?"

"What kind of a question is that? Of course I can walk I'm not a fucking baby!" At least I have regained my temper.

"Then get up. Let's go to Rangiku and Yumi. We need to find a dry place to stay for the night. We'll come back tomorrow to deal with…" He cleared his throat. "With Ikkaku and Soifon." He stood up, cursing loudly at the pain his dislocated shoulder was giving him. I can't understand how he can deal with the pain so calmly. It must hurt like hell.

"What about that shoulder of yours? You should do something about it." I also got up and noticed that the pain in my leg was worse now that I was standing.

Grimmjow didn't look back but kept walking slowly towards where he knew the other two were. "S'okay, Rangiku talked something about Yumi fixing it." I scowled but remained silent.

As I took a step I almost stumbled to ground. What the hell, I lost feeling from my left leg for a moment. I clutched to a near tree for support. I glanced at Grimmjow and felt relieved when I realized he hadn't noticed my little fuck-up. Still, I felt worried. What the fuck was up with my leg? Are some nerves or something damaged? I really hope it's just something like when I was out the leg had been in an awkward position.

* * *

My leg still felt weird but it seemed to work quite normally. I managed to limp behind Grimmjow to where Rangiku and Yumi were. The feminine man was in Rangiku's arms and they sat on the ground. I looked around me when suddenly my eyes caught the sight of Ikkaku. My eyes went wide and my stomach turned upside down. I quickly turned my head around and refused to look at the motionless figure on the ground. This is the reason I didn't follow my dad's footsteps to become a doctor in the future; I can't handle death. Or dead people to be more precise.

Grimmjow was about to say something but Rangiku sent him a look that shut him up. I was a little taken aback; I didn't know she actually were able to be serious about something. I had had the impression that she's just a big…uh, lump of boob, sake and overall idiocy. But now it seemed like she had become a support for Yumi.

Rangiku leaned back to look at Yumi's face. "Yumi, dear, we need to get away from the rain." It was neither a question nor a demand. It was a soft statement that seemed to be easy for Yumi's confused mind to comply. Slowly he got up from the ground, with the help of the big-breasted-bitc…no, I think I'll drop that for a while. If she keeps behaving like this I might be able to befriend with her. But it's a big fat _maybe_.

All four of us were on our feet. Grimmjow looked around him and mumbled something to himself. I walked to him and stuffed my hands in my pockets. "So, what now? In general this whole situation is a nightmare, but I guess we need to at least try to survive." Grimmjow hummed and nodded in response.

"Let's find a dry place somewhere near and then come back tomorrow." He glanced at Ikkaku and furrowed his brow. "I'mma go and see if I can find a blanket or something from the wreck to cover… ya know.." He mumbled and headed towards the plane. I watched his retreating back and ran my hand through soaked orange locks.

"Where are we going to go?" Rangiku asked as she was holding Yumi. I looked at her and shrugged. "No idea. Guess we just have to start walking around and see if we find something." That sounded hopeless and damn if it wasn't just that.

"Mm, I might know a place if ya wanna go 'n see it fer yerself."

I froze. I know that mocking sing-song voice. With a quick turnaround I was now facing Gin's creepy smile and slitted eyes. Rangiku was gasping. "Gin, oh my god, is it really you?"

Gin tilted his head and then took a step backwards and looked at himself, arms extended to his sides. "It sure looks like me, ne?"

The big-breasted woman was crying happy tears whereas I was getting riled up. "What the hell, you seem like you're just fine, no injuries whatsoever. Where the fuck were you? It didn't come to your mind to go and actually check if the others were fine?" I rumbled and glared intently at his lid-covered eyes.

"Maa, tha' makes it sound like yer sad I don't have any injuries. I was walkin' around, gettin' to know to the surroundings. I don't wanna fumble around with dead bodies."

"Oh my fucking god I seriously can't deal with you. Who the hell says something like that?" I spat and threw my hands to my sides for emphasize. This man makes me forget our current situation and brings back the old and familiar me. The silver-haired bastard just chuckled, which made me even angrier. Just as I was going to yell something extremely rude to him (probably something about wishing he were dead instead of Ikkaku), Rangiku cleared her throat, gaining my attention.

"Don't forget the current situation _or _the people who are present." Of course she was talking about Yumichika. Slightly embarrassed, I turned around and walked away from them.

It was starting to get dark. Spending a night in this forest, the weather being what it is.. The idea sure wasn't appealing. I looked up to the sky. How did I end up in this? I really didn't know what to think or how to act. Should I be angry? At who? Grimmjow or Gin? Both? Well it sounds lovely, but right now I don't have the energy to do that. I'm mentally and physically exhausted and I just want to sleep. I think I'll bottle up my frustrations and anger and blast them at those two when the right moment comes. That'll be something to look forward to.

It didn't take long for Grimmjow to return. He had indeed found a blanket, which he put over Ikkaku's body. When he noticed Gin, he didn't really react in any way to it. I guess he's gotten used to that guy's fucked-up behavior and was somewhat expecting something like that from him. When I asked him about it, he just shrugged "He's too fucking sly to die". Well, I guess that might be true. Too bad.

Suddenly something hit me. Grimmjow's shoulder! I turned to the mentioned man. "Grimmjow your shoulder. Doesn't it hurt? You can't be like that for too long." The blue-haired man didn't say anything so I turned to Rangiku. She understood (wow, a miracle) what I was going to ask her and turned to Yumi, who was still in her arms.

"Yumi?" She asked softly. "I think Grimmjow's shoulder is dislocated. Is there something you could do about it?" The feminine man lifted his glazed purple eyes to meet Rangiku's blue ones. After a few silent minutes he nodded and untangled himself wearily from the woman's arms. He then took a few steps towards Grimmjow. "I need you to lie down on your back." He said quietly. "It's going to hurt."

The blue-haired man stayed quiet and lay down on the wet ground. I made a face. I knew this was going to hurt and the whole idea made my insides dance cancan, and not in a good way. I don't mind pain that much, but the idea of a deformed shoulder creeps me out.

Yumi crouched beside his patient and supposedly examined him quickly before mumbling absentmindedly "Mm, it's an anterior dislocation. Good." Grimmjow raised an eyebrow. "And that means?" The smaller man glanced at him. "No need to start explaining. But in common language you're lucky because if it were posterior, I wouldn't be able to fix it."

The dark-haired man grabbed Grimmjows left arm and bent the elbow to 90 degree angle. I could see from the larger man's face that the pain was excruciating but he remained silent, clenching his teeth and scrunching his eyes shut.

Then the feminine one started to rotate the arm and shoulder inwards, creating an L-shape. My eyes flicked between Yumi and Grimmjow. The latter was now letting out a strained breath. I heard steps beside me and turned to see Gin standing there with a wide grin. I can't believe this. "Are you actually enjoying what you're seeing?" The fox turned to me, widening his already huge grin even bigger. "Can't deny" I rolled my eyes. "You're sick." He just laughed a little and then continued so stare at the 'show' in front of us. I don't know how long I can watch this though.

Yumi fisted Grimmjow's injured hand and started to rotate the arm outwards. "Okay here it goes. Deep breath" The larger man didn't listen but breathed heavily and fast. He glanced at Yumi, who was waiting for him to calm down. "Goddammit, Yumi just do it, get this over with it hurts like hell!" The dark-haired man just nodded and then kept rotating it further.

"OH FUCKING SHITFACED FUCK!" Grimmjow yelled as his arm was being rotated. It took a few tries but finally with a rough yell from the patient's part Yumi was able to return the shoulder back to its shoulder joint. Without a word he stood up and walked back to Rangiku. Grimmjow breathed heavily on the ground, I was feeling a little sick and Gin looked amused. I can't understand his interests because I really regret I didn't flee the scene. I don't like to see people in pain when I'm not able to do anything to help them. Even if it were Grimmjow…

The blue-haired man stayed on the ground and groaned. "Oh fuck feels so good now that the constant pain is almost all gone" He tentatively rotated his shoulder. "You shouldn't strain it, so keep it cool" Yumi mumbled against Rangiku's neck. Grimmjow glanced at him and grinned. "Yeah, thanks" The other man just hummed in response.

* * *

"We goin' soon? I don't wanna wet my underwear" Gin cooed and wrinkled his nose at the rain. I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything. Grimmjow sent interrogative looks to all of us and when nobody said anything he made the decision for us.

"Show the way, Gin" He said and looked at the fox. Oh yeah, he does resemble a fox so I'll just call him by that from time to time.

Gin nodded and started heading deeper into the forest, Grimmjow right behind him. I glanced at Rangiku and gestured them to go first and letting me come last. There were two reasons. The first being; I'm not such an ass to make a woman (even though she's a freak) go last. The second being; I don't want them to see my difficulties with my leg. It's giving me a little hard time when I'm walking but I'll manage.

I was scowling fiercely as we made our way to 'the place' we agreed to spend the night in. I don't know what the hell is going through that bastard's, aka Gin's head. He was leading us through probably the most difficult way ever; there were unbalanced rocks, tree roots and stumps, which all were slippery due to the rain. I almost fell with every step I took. My left leg was killing me but I refused to make a sound about it.

* * *

**Grimmjov's POV**

We had been walking for a while when suddenly a loud yelp and a thump could be hear from behind me. I turned around in the dark forest and saw the Strawberry lying on his back on the ground.

"Oi, Berry, now's not the time to take a nap" I yelled at him and then laughed a little when a 'fuck you' was sent back at me. Gin stopped walking and raised an eyebrow in question. I waved him off and headed towards the redhead. When I reached him I offered my hand to him. He just looked at my hand with an unreadable expression.

"C'mon, I'll help ya up" I waved my extended hand. His face scrunched back to his usual (but cute) scowl.

"You can stuff that hand in your ass for all I care" An evil rejoinder popped into my mind and I grinned.

"Oh I would wanna stuff this hand to somebody else's ass, if ya ask me." That got me the hoped reaction as even if it was dark I still could see his blush. Another 'fuck you' was sent at me and I just chuckled.

"Well whatever, with or without my help but just get up. We need to get going." I took a step backwards to watch the redhead lifting himself from the ground.

Just as he was almost all the way up, he let out a strained groan and slumped back to the ground. My face actually accomplished to look worried. But it's just for the Berry.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked and leaned towards him. He was holding his left ankle.

"I think I strained it when I fell.." He sighed and cursed.

"Can ya walk with it?" Well he wasn't able to get up just now, but you can never be too sure, right?

"I don't know… Oh fuck seriously what did I do to deserve all this?" He complained and tried again to get up. He took support from a tree and basically clung to it when he got up. He looked pathetic. I shook my head and grabbed his arm. "W-what?"

I yanked him towards me and lifted him up, bridal style. "Ya can't walk like this and ya know it. So shut up and just let yerself be carried like a woman that ya are." I know that will earn me a fist to the head but I just couldn't help it. The Berry is too much fun to tease.

I was waiting for the incoming fist with half-closed eyes but it never came. Slowly I reopened my eyes to see the redhead glaring holes through my skull. "No fist?" His angry glare turned to a smug grin. "I just want you to know that you're going to pay when my leg is better." I don't know if I'm more excited than scared. Oh what the hell am I talking about, I'm eagerly waiting for my payback! I want to see what he is capable of.

I grinned even more smugly than he (because I can) and gestured Gin to continue in the front. Then I poked Rangiku's back with the redhead's uninjured foot to make her move forward with Yumichika.

"I really hope your shoulder will fall off because of this." He grumbled in my arms. I laughed and on purpose squeezed him a little. "Ya… So mean"

"Bastard"

"Just for ya, Berry"

* * *

**Gin's POV**

I don't understand why Ichigo was mad at me back there. My side of this story goes: I woke up and noticed I was almost unharmed. Then I actually did try to wake Rangiku up by kicking her to her side pretty hard, but because she didn't even stir, I got bored and left.

I wandered around the forest, clueless where I should go. In some point I was almost sure I got lost and will die there, but I didn't. Instead, I found this dark cave. It was creepy – yes – but it would provide us _(me)_ some shelter from the upcoming rain. I don't like to get wet you know..

So, I go through the trouble to find us _(me)_ a place to stay and these people don't even thank me? I shook my head in my thoughts. Such ingratitude. I shouldn't have come back.

Finally the cave came to my sight. I sighed in relief; for a moment I was worried I _did_ get lost this time.

I slowed my pace before coming to a halt. Turning around, I gave Grimmjow a pleasant smile before opening my mouth.

"So this 'ere was built in god-knows-when by the Neanderthals." I extended my arm towards the cave as if I were showing _a house_ to an interested family. " It has a big livin' room with a huge window, which also acts as the front door. The garden needs a little work though 'n the overall atmosphere is a little chilly. Otherwise it's a really nice lil' apartment. Two families have already come to see this place, so if ya wanna get it I recommend ya to hurry things up." I sang with a happy voice.

Grimmjow just stared at me, his other eyebrow lifted. "Gin, what the fuck?"

Doesn't he have any sense of humor? "Nothin' in particular." I turned around and headed towards the cave mouth. These people are so boring. I think I need to tease Ichigo to get my daily happy-dose. After our little joyride in the plane, I have been too bored.

* * *

**Ichigo's POV**

A pitch-black cave? Oh well, this is something you would expect from a freak like Gin. Dark, slimy, cold, creepy and maybe even a little scary. Yeah, those words totally go with that cave as well as that silver-haired man. _Kaching_, a perfect match.

Grimmjow mumbled something about Gin's stupidity, to which I totally agree, as we got closer to the cave.

"Are we really going to go in there?" Rangiku asked her voice a little hesitant.

"Ya don't wanna get wet, do ya?" Gin's voice echoed from inside. Rangiku didn't answer, but swallowed loudly _(even I was able to hear it)_ and stepped inside.

"Ya wanna me to carry ya over the threshold?" Grimmjow's rough voice assaulted my ear. What? He can still be such a bastard after all that has happened?

"Oh you're such an asshole. Let's just go in, okay?" I breathed and knew I was blushing.

The blue-haired man laughed but started moving forwards anyway. "If ya say so, my beautiful bride" I had the urge to hit him to the shoulder which was dislocated earlier.

Finally as all of us were inside, a thick silence took over. This actually was the first time after the accident that everybody could just stop and think about everything. Yumichika was starting to weep again and Rangiku tried to comfort him while glancing around her nervously. Grimmjow was scowling fiercely and for a second I think I saw a glimpse of guilt in his eyes as he glanced at Yumi. That threw me off. Why the hell would he feel guilty of anything? It wasn't like he caused Ikkaku's death or anything.

I was starting to sink into my own thoughts when suddenly I felt something small hit the side of my head. I blinked a few times, but chose to ignore it.

Then it happened again. I lifted my gaze from the ground to look around me. Nothing special. Grimmjow was scowling, Rangiku looked thoughtful and Yumi was sniffing. Gin, eh, he was grinning. I returned to my thoughts.

Then a third time was the last straw.

I slammed my hands on the ground (which by the way hurt like hell) "Who the fuck is throwing things at me?" No answer. Grimmjow looked at me like I was going crazy.

"Don't you fucking look at me like that"

He shifted and run a hand through his hair. "Well yer not helping it by bellowing about weird shit"

My eyebrows shot up. "Well I bet you wouldn't enjoy it either if somebody used your head as a goddamn target, fucktard" I shifted my stare to look at Gin. There he was, grinning like the happiest man on earth.

Actually now that I take a better look he seems to be too amused.

"Gin?"

He faked a surprised pout and pointed a finger at himself. "Wha? Ya blamin' me? I haven' done anythin'"

"Yeah right." Later when he moved his hands back in the sleeves of his shirt, I could see a pile of little rocks beside him. He was just covering them earlier with his hands. Fucking bastard gets some kind of sick pleasure from bugging others.

* * *

After the rock episode everyone had gone back to their own thoughts. Eventually Yumi had fallen asleep and Rangiku was also dozing a little. I broke the silence by yawning, gaining the attentions of the people still awake.

"Guess we should try and get some sleep" Grimmjow mumbled and I nodded while rubbing my eyes.

"We're gonna talk about everything tomorrow and go back to the plane to gather up some useful shit and also deal with the.." He didn't have to continue to make us understand what he meant. Then he looked at me and grinned. "Now, Ichi, c'mere." The blue-haired man gestured me to come to him. I raised an eyebrow.

"Why the hell would I do that?"

Grimmjow grinned "I don't wanna sleep alone in the dark, I need my Berry" I rolled my eyes at his stupid baby-talk. He's such an idiot.

"I think…no, I _know_ I'll refuse thank you very much." With that I lay down on the hard ground and tried make myself comfortable, which was nearly impossible. Heavy thoughts still swirled in my mind but I chose to ignore them for now. I'll just get back to them tomorrow. I closed my eyes but suddenly reopened them and sat back up. I leaned forward and placed little rocks in a horizontal line in front of me.

"This here is a bastard-barrier. If any of you cross over it, you'll get your limbs ripped off." Without any other words I lay back down and closed my eyes. It's cold, dark and my clothes are wet.. This is great.

The last thing I heard before drifting off was Grimmjow's amused snort.

* * *

**So as you can see this one was a little shorter than the previous one. But I have decided that the minimum length will be 10 pages in MS Word, so the chappy's won't get too short due to my laziness..**

**Aaand as you might have already noticed, I'm taking my time building up Ichi and Grimm's relationship. They **_**were**_** total strangers for each other so.. But as they 'settle down' a little, they'll have more time to different stuff ^^ Now that I have finally reached the point that they are in the forest, I'll start paying a **_**lot**_** more attention to their relationship.. Patience is all I'm asking~ **

**So what did you think about this? It might seem like everything is all over the place right now but don't worry, it won't get too out of hands. I hope this ch didn't kill your interest towards this whole fic since it's a bit different now than what it was in the beginning.**

**Oh and last but not least: Yumi will NOT be like that for the rest of the fic.. But c'mon, the guy just lost the love of his life and Rangiku just happens to be there for him. He needs to be hugged! Rangiku also won't stay as a freaking mother hen.**

**Reviews stretch Gin's grin so much that his cheeks will cramp! And mine also. Help me and my beloved Gin to screw up our faces? *feeling nervous***

**~Frichikiras**


	5. The price of affection

**Hello again! I'm in a writing mood so what do you get? Another chapter of course!  
This is my May Day partying for you: writing a freaking chapter in one day~ In **_**my**_** face.**

**So, to smash down any questions (which I had myself for a while): No, these 5 will **_**not**_** be just a bunch of airheads in a forest. If they were, they wouldn't survive to the end of the fic and I don't wanna kill them all~ *beast-roar*  
But, I will still keep them a little idiot from time to time to make the story a bit funnier. (Or at least I'm trying my best)**

**In this chapter Ichi and Grimm's relationship will start to evolve T^T**

**Warnings: The usual; bad language, typos, grammatical errors, idiocy and so on  
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, who the hell would think that? If I did, I would have been 10-years-old when I started it.. Child prodigy *headdesk* **

**Anyway let's start once again, enjoy~**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The price of affection**

* * *

**Ichigo's POV**

"GAH!" I woke up from my sleep, panting like a chased animal. I glanced around to see no-one reacted in anyway so I guess they're still sleeping. My back was telling me that the cave floor wasn't quite the ideal place to sleep. Who would've guessed! I buried my face into my palms and sighed. In the dream I relived the crash enhanced by not-so-pretty pictures of Soifon and Ikkaku, making it resemble a horror movie rather than a dream.

I figured I didn't want to try and get some more sleep so I got up to my feet. The left one was still sore as hell but I managed to limp to the cave mouth. The rain had stopped and the rising sun painted the sky with different shades of orange. Birds were chirping and the air smelled fresh. I inhaled the nice smell and tried to forget everything about yesterday. I limped out of the cave to the bushes, the droplets of water moistening my hair and clothes once again.

A loud growl from my stomach stopped my actions and made me look around me frantically. Damn I was sure it was a bear or something before I figured out it was my body screaming for food. I felt more than a little stupid for a second. Hunger drove me to look something to eat. I spotted some wood-sorrel on the ground. I remembered out biology teacher talking something about them being edible to I thought to give it a try. I crouched to the ground, being careful with my left leg. I reached my hand, picked one leaf and tentatively tasted it. Sour. I made a face but kept munching it. Hell, I need to act like a freaking cow if I want to fill myself with these but I guess it's better than nothing. Once the others wake up we'll figure out what we're going to do and then start look around for food.

As I gulped down the bad-tasting leaves, somebody walked behind me. I turned around to see Yumi looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"You want some?" I raised a bunch of wood-sorrel leaves towards him, while munching a few myself.

Yumi just looked at me quietly before opening his mouth. "Ugly"

I tilted my head. "Huh?"

"You look ugly."

My eyebrows shot to the sky. What the hell? "Why thank you. But I guess it's not that important right now how do you look as long as you survive, right?" No answer. I felt the need to shake him up, but didn't because I thought he was still in a fragile state. I turned back to my leaf-paradise and kept looking like a chimpanzee.

With a side glance I noticed that Yumi sat down on a rock and leaned forward, placing his arms against his knees. I chose to ignore him.

"So we're in a forest. My lover is in another world. Grimmjow told us that the radio in the plane doesn't work so we can't call for help. We're stuck."

I once again stopped my animalistic behaviour and turned towards him.

"When did Grimmjow talk about the radio?" I crouched on the ground, leaning against a tree.

Yumichika pointed a finger towards the cave. "Just a minute ago. They're all awake and were wondering where you are."

"Oh. Well I had a nightmare and wanted to get out of that cave and.." I trailed off as I saw Rangiku coming out of the cave and towards us.

"Ahhahah, what a lovely night" She fake-chirped and stretched her hand above her head "But I'm going to kick Gin to the head if he dares to take us in such a place again my back is killing me. As if my sore side wouldn't been enough" Her voice got angry towards the end of the sentence. I looked at her with an amused expression.

"You aren't afraid of the dark, are you?" I asked in a mocking voice, fiddling a wood-sorrel leaf in my hands. Rangiku kept silent for a while before placing her hands to her hips and lifting her chin so that she was looking even more down on me.

"Of course I'm not. But you on the other hand, cutie" She pointed a finger at me "were having a nightmare, right?" I didn't answer to her.

"Aww, you should have come to me, I would have provided you with soft skin and warmth" She whined, making Yumi and I roll our eyes.

I looked at the two. Rangiku seemed to be acting quite normal and Yumi was also looking surprisingly good. I don't get it. How the hell can all of us act so normally, like we were camping, when in reality the situation would demand 5 totally broken human beings. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just worried there might be some break-downs in the horizon when someone can't take this anymore.

"Here ya are, Berry. I wondered where ya had run" Grimmjow walked to us, carefully rotating his right shoulder. I grinned.

"Oh, might it be that your shoulder is giving you a hard time?" The blue-haired man gave me a nonchalant look.

"Not any worse than yesterday." He turned towards the cave he came from and lifted his hands around his mouth and yelled. "Gin, drag yer ass here we're gonna start talking about shit!" We waited for a few minutes but when there was no sight of Gin, Grimmjow turned back to us and made a 'tsk' sound.

"Whatever, s'not like he'd listen anyway. So as I already told, the radio doesn't work so we can't call for help. What do you think, should we stay with the plane or should we start moving and try to find help ourselves?" Everybody thought about it for a while but Yumi was the first one to say anything aloud.

"In my opinion we should stay with the plane. I'm sure we all have family or friends who will start worrying about us and in the end send somebody to search for us. If we're near the plane, the odds of being found are bigger, don't you think? Besides, I want to stay close to Ikkaku, I don't want to leave him here alone. I want to be able to visit his.." he swallowed "..grave every evening and morning" It seemed to me that Yumi had accepted the current situation overnight. I looked at him. As I already said, to me he still looked fragile, but was trying desperately to look strong. Well I guess it's his way of deal with this. Not that I'm one to talk.

"Yeah, that makes sense. Besides then it's easier for the hunters to find back to the others if we have a camp or something" Grimmjow rubbed his chin. Rangiku snapped her head towards the man and whined.

"Hunters, huh? Grimmjow I don't want to kill anything" She fiddled with the hem of her pink shirt.

Grimmjow snorted. "Like I would ever put ya in charge of hunting"

Rangiku looked at him, furrowing her brow, but didn't say anything. I shifted my gaze back to the blue-haired man. "So we're going to give assignments or something like that to each and every one?"

The bigger man nodded "Yeah, something like that. Makes everything much easier while we're here."

Everyone was quiet for a while, until Grimmjow spoke once again.

"So, we should head back to the plane. There's stuff that needs to be done. If I take care of moving our lost friends, will everyone else take part in digging graves for them? Sorry Yumichika to drag ya into this, but ya know…" The blunet talked to Yumi a little hesitantly, but the feminine man answered with determination.

"Of course I'm going to take part in it. I want to be beside him when he goes and I want to make sure his departure is as beautiful as possible." I just stared at him. It totally looked like he has achieved some kind of peace of mind. Good for him.

Rangiku cleared her throat. "Um, about the family or friends who'll miss us and start to look for us… My whole family lives abroad and thus we don't talk so much. The only one I have here is my cousin Toushiro, but he doesn't really like me, so I don't know if anybody will miss me…" She stared at the ground and bit her lip.

Her words reminded me of my family and friends. I sighed. Damn I even miss my idiot father. "I have my family; dad and two younger sisters, but I don't know if they know I'm even here. What I mean is that I haven't told them about this skydiving thing. But then there are my friends. Rukia, who forced me to come in the first place and then Renji, who also knows about this. So I hope they'll tell dad, Karin and Yuzu"

Yumi was the next to talk. "My dad won't miss me. He kicked me out of the house and cut off our relationship when he heard I'm gay. But my mother calls me every day so she'll get worried when I don't answer the phone. And Ikkaku…well he does have a mother, his father died a couple of years ago."

Grimmjow shifted and grumbled. "I've got that goddamn sister" He was cut off by Rangiku's squeal.

"Oh, Nel! She's so lovely!" She almost jumped with excitement. I lifted an eyebrow. How the hell can her moods change so quickly? First she was almost depressed and now she's all over the place. Then a question popped into my mind.

"Rangiku, you know Grimmjow's sister in person?" I didn't even know he had a sister. Then again we haven't known each other for a long time and I haven't had the urge to get to know to him. At all..

Rangiku stopped her bouncing and looked at me incredulously. "Huh? Of course I do, we're really good friends with Nel. I often visit her in their house" She pointed a finger at a pissed-looking Grimmjow, who opened his mouth.

"Yeah, ya just fucking barge in like it were your house!" He yelled, throwing his hands up in emphasize and glared at her.

"Aw, don't be like that Grimm. You know I love you too" She whined and pouted her lip.

"Tsk, shut the fuck up and don't call me 'Grimm'.. Anyway, let's go back to the plane. I'm starving so we need to get certain things done before two of us can go hunting" He started walking towards where we came yesterday and gestured us to follow him. I snorted. Way to go Grimmjow to avert the current subject.

The blunet took a few steps before stopping and turning around. "Berry, c'mere."

What, this again?

"What, why?" I asked, already pissed off. I had a hint what he was going to say.

"Ya know yer leg hurts, I know it, everybody knows it. So if ya wanna it to get better, get yer ass over here. I won't carry ya bridal style, even though I'd like to. I'll give ya a piggyback ride." He grinned and extended his hand towards me.

Rangiku poked me to the back and pushed me forward. I looked at her and made a face once I saw that glimpse in her eyes. "C'mon just go for it. I'll go get Gin and we'll come right behind you."

I rolled my eyes "Yeah? Should that be some kind of encouragement? Doesn't really work though" I walked towards Grimmjow anyway. I did want my ankle to get better so..

* * *

The trip back to the plane was quiet. Grimmjow carried me, I refused to utter a word and he was wise enough to keep quiet. Yumi followed us silently and Gin and Rangiku came slightly after we arrived to the crash scene.

Grimmjow went to take Soifon out of the plane, Rangiku, Yumi and I started to dig graves with stones and pieces of the plane. It wasn't easy but we managed. You wonder where Gin was? Well he was kind enough to sit close to us and give us advice how to dig faster – without helping himself with the task. Fucking lazy-ass bastard.

The burial was also quiet and awkward – at least for me. I really didn't know these two people but I just went with the others. Besides, even if you don't know the deceased, it's still proper to respect their memory and thus act like it. Once the job was done, Rangiku and Yumi started making grave crosses to mark the places where Ikkaku and Soifon were buried. Gin didn't attend the whole situation, which to me was rude, but what other can you expect from him.

It was midday and the sun was shining. Grimmjow was rummaging through the plane, searching for something. I didn't bother asking what. I chose to go to the _girls_.. Oh yeah I call Rangiku and Yumichika by the name 'girls' now because Yumi's facial features are so feminine, that one might think he is a woman.. So I went to them and sat down on the ground to look what they're were doing. They had almost finished the crosses. Yumi was making Ikkaku's cross and Rangiku Soifon's. They looked pretty, even to me. The two of them had taken knifes from the plane and cut four sticks from some tree (they were as thick as a thumb). Then they had peeled the bark from the sticks, so now they were a nice cream color. With some rope they had tied two sticks together, completing two crosses. Then they had decorated them in different ways. Once they were ready, they put them on the ground. And step back to look at their work.

"They look nice" I said quietly, startling both of them since they hadn't notice me. Rangiku scratched the back of her neck and smiled. "Thanks" Then her expression turned serious and she rubbed her stomach.

"God, I'm hungry. What on earth is Grimmjow doing? We should already be looking for food" Yumi walked beside her and nodded sharply. I turned around to look at the plane and sighed.

"I can go and ask him what's taking so fucking long."

Rangiku looked at me "Would you do that?" I shrugged. "Why wouldn't I?"

With that I left the _girls _and walked towards the plane. When I got in front of it I peeked inside.

"Grimmjow?" The mentioned man was rummaging in the back of the plane, cursing loudly at the amount of trash. I didn't call him again since I was afraid I might get hit by something heavy or sharp if I piss him off. So I sat down and waited.

After a quarter of an hour or so he came out with a white box, which had a red cross on it.

"Take off yer shoe, let's put a bandage to yer ankle. Then it should hold yer weight better so ya can come with me to find something to eat" He crouched in front of me and looked at me in the eyes. "Well? Will ya take it off or do I need to?"

I scowled at him but took the shoe and the sock from my foot. Then I pulled the trouser leg up and leaned back on my arms. Grimmjow made a quick job on bandaging my ankle.

"Now get up and try to walk" I did as I was told and as expected the ankle did feel much better now.

"You know, I could have done that myself. My dad _is_ a doctor after all so I know how to bandage an ankle" I said as I tentatively rotated the sore ankle and looked down at it.

"Yeah, but I wanted to do it" I glanced at Grimmjow who was still crouching and looking at me.

"Whatever" I sighed and looked at the sky. "So we're going to put up a happy-camp here?"

Grimmjow snorted. "If ya wanna put it that way, yep. I thought that Rangiku and Yumi could clean up the plane a little so that we'd be able to sleep in it for the next night.."

I narrowed my eyes. "It is quite small, how the hell are we going to fit in it.." I wasn't a question, rather just my thought said aloud. But Grimmjow's devilish grin gave an answer to it even though I didn't ask for one. I raised a finger towards him.

"Oh no. I want my space when I'm sleeping. I'm going to put up that bastard-barrier again and the same threat is still there if you cross over it" Grimmjow's grin just widened as I said those words.

"We'll see about that when the night comes."

* * *

**Yumichika's POV**

I was feeling surprisingly normal. Last night I had a dream where Ikkaku spoke to me. He told me that everything was fine, he was fine, I was fine. He told that even if we're not physically together, we could meet in my dreams like that. He also told me to keep strong and help the others if needed. His words really comforted me. I wasn't afraid anymore and now that I was able to stay close to his grave, I felt like I was even closer to him.

I was also grateful for Rangiku. She really helped me that night and she still does. We have become good friends in this short time and I hope that we'd stay good friends after we get out from here. The only thing is that I don't know if I want to leave Ikkaku's side. Oh I mean his grave.

Ichigo had gone to the plane to ask Grimmjow what was taking so long. We haven't eaten anything in many hours and it was starting to affect our strength. And if Ichigo and Grimmjow are going to catch something to eat, they need strength so there's no time to waste.

I ran my slender fingers through my hair and sighed. Rangiku looked at me. "What's wrong Yumi?" I just smiled at her "Nothing, I'm just hungry"

Ran smiled weakly "So am I. I wonder if we should also go and try to find something to eat. Mushrooms or something"

I bit my lip "Yeah, you're right.. It's mid-July so we might be able to find some chanterelles, penny buns, some russulas, blueberries, cloudberries and so on if we're lucky." I raised a finger "But we must get a fire going and find a river to get water and a little pot, so that we can cook the mushrooms."

Ran looked at me, her eyes full with pure admiration "Yumi, how do you know all this"

I uttered a laugh "We lived together with Ikkaku. He liked to roam in the wilderness and as expected I was the one to take care of the cooking. I had to know what I was doing" Memories filled my mind but I decided to ignore them. I wasn't ready to take that path, not yet. It was still too painful.

I glanced at her and saw her looking around her "What're you looking for? We won't find food this close, we need to go further, to swamps and such"

"Yeah I know, I was just looking for Gin. He could come with us so that we'd find our way back" I frowned at her words.

"You think I can't find our way back?" She stopped and turned to me

"Of course I don't question your skills Yumi" She started to fiddle the hem of her shirt like she usually does when she's hesitant. "I'm just so sure I'll get lost and won't find you or anyone else. Gin has always been there if I can't find my way. He always pops out from the weirdest places so I just thought…"

"My my, Rangiku yer flattrein' me too much" Gin walked out from the bushes

Rangiku looked at me and shrugged "See what I mean?" I nodded in response. Oh yes I see..

"Hmm?" Gin tilted his head in question but didn't really wait for an answer since he immediately continued "But I'm afraid I can't help ya" Rangiku raised her gaze to look at Gin's slitted eyes "Huh? Why not?"

"Mm, s'not my thin'" He grinned and casually walked away.

I looked at him walking away from us and sighed. "He's weird. I don't get him even though we've been in the same club for years. And leaving us like that. So not beautiful."

Rangiku looked at him too and smiled "He's Gin. He is a bit weird but once you get used to his oddness, he's a good guy.." Then her face went serious, almost angry "unless he's trying to steal your camera and then won't let you see the picture he took of the cutie-Ichi! I bet he has the camera with him as we speak but refuses to show me it" She ranted "I really want to see the picture, Yumi"

"Yeah Yeah" I smiled at Ran's silliness.

Suddenly Grimmjow yell was heard from the plane "Hey guys! We're gonna go hunting with the Berry. Could ya try and clean up this shithole? If we're gonna stay here, we should sleep in the plane but it's filled with trash so there's no way one could sleep in it. I found an old brush and rope and other stuff from there. I have no idea what all Soifon kept in this piece of shit, but look around if ya can find something useful. I found matches so ya should be able to start a fire" There was a short silence "And Gin ya bastard ya'd better do something too or we won't need to go hunting at all, we'll just slice ya up!"

I heard Gin's chuckle a few meters away from us and a shiver ran down my spine. Ugh, gross. I would never put something like Gin in my mouth. No matter if it were roasted or boiled or whatever.

* * *

**Ichigo's POV**

The _girls_ accepted Grimmjows suggestion even though Rangiku whined something about how they had talked about leaving to search for mushrooms and berries. The blue-haired bastard had snorted when Rangiku had mentioned about searching for berries, and commented how _the_ berry had been with him all the time, no need to try to look for him. It caused him to suffer a kick to his shin.

We had taken a knife, rope and a small piece of the plane with us. The idea was to set up traps in addition to normal hunting. I just really didn't know how the hell Grimmjow was going to catch anything. But I was curious to see. We walked and walked. The blunet in front of me kept leaving some kind of markings to the trees so that we'd find our way back to the plane and later back to the traps.

Finally he stopped. "Is it okay with ya if ya start digging a hole for the trap? I'll go and try to catch something"

I shrugged and started looking for a good place to start digging. Grimmjow was right, with my leg still sore I'm not much of a help with anything else than digging. It still bugged me though.

"I'll come help ya once I've got something, 'kay?"

"Yeah yeah, just get going already, I'm seriously starving here." I waved him off and started digging with the pathetic piece of the plane's side plate. Still, it was more effective than digging with bare hands. Thank god the soil was pretty soft so the whole job was a bit easier.

My hands hurt as I kept creating the hole for the trap. I had already dug two graves and now I'm forced to do this? Grimmjow had already left so I was alone. I was grateful for the slight wind that kept blowing since I was sweating like a pig and it disgusted me. But what can I do, I really care more about the food than my current state. I'm a growing man, I need food.

After what it felt (and most likely were) like hours I heard steps as sticks broke under somebody's feet. I knew it was Grimmjow so I didn't even bother to turn around.

"Oi, Berry! See what I got" I could hear the triumph from his voice so I stopped my actions and lifted myself up (I had dug a waist-deep, about a meter in diameter hole on the ground, kudos for me)

When I saw the blunet and what he had in his hands my jaw dropped. The damn bastard had caught two rabbits and a pheasant.

"What.. How did you.." I stuttered and stared at the lifeless animals.

"I'm not gonna tell ya my secrets until yer leg is okay and ya can help me" He grinned and put the animals down. "Now let's finish this hole and set the trap, maybe we'd catch a wild boar" He said excitedly and lowered himself into the pit.

"Well we need quite bit of luck if we're going to succeed in that" I said, greatly doubting our chances.

"Yeah, but this place here looks like it had been used as a road by some animal, so.." I just stared at him at the bottom of the pit. How the hell does he know all this shit? Still I couldn't help but feel a slight admiration of his accomplishments.

* * *

Later, after digging two pits and setting the traps (branches and leaves on top to hide the hole and sharp sticks to the bottom of it), we arrived back at the plane/camp/base/whatever you want to call it. If you ask me, it's just a shithole. I took those words back when I saw the new look of the place.

Rangiku and Yumi had made it look quite nice. They had cut down two trees, about the thickness of an ankle, with an axe-like thing they found from the plane (Soifon, what the hell?). Then they had thrust them to the ground and put a tarp between them and the plane, creating a nice ramada-like shelter. They had also collected larger stones to build a fireplace a few meters away from the plane and set the fire.

"So, how do you like it?" Rangiku asked enthusiastically, not even noticing the three animals we had with us.

"Looking nice, I don't mind staying here and wait for the help to arrive" Grimmjow grinned. I also smiled and looked at our temporary home. Considering the situation, this is quite good.

Yumi came from behind the plane with a concaved piece of metal. "Ran, you think this would serve as a pan?" He lifted his gaze and noticed Grimmjow and I "Oh, you're back" Then his eyes widened.

"Ran look what they brought with them" Only now Rangiku noticed the two rabbits and the pheasant and squealed "Oh my god we're going to get something proper to eat!"

Suddenly, as I watched the two excited figures in front of me, a thought hit me. I looked hesitantly at Grimmjow who noticed my stare and looked back in an interrogative way. "Umm, so somebody needs to do something to these before they're edible. You know skin them and.."

"If ya don't wanna do it, I can do it. But it would be good for ya to know how to do it too.. Ya can't keep up that what ya did back at the club building – just watching others do everything" He laughed.

I glared angrily at him and snatched the animals from his grip. "Gimme those, I'll prepare them." I fumed and turned away from him.

"Aw, Berry don't get angry with me" He laughed and followed after me as I stomped towards a flat rock, which would serve as a table for skinning and other not-so-nice things.

* * *

**Grimmjow's POV**

We ended up preparing the animals together and Rangiku and Yumi stayed back to make sure the fire place was okay as well as the new pan Yumi found. Gin had apparently come across a river pretty close-by while roaming around so we were able to wash ourselves, boil water to drink and so on. We did have water bottles in the plane and luckily most of them didn't break so we had something in which we could carry a little amount of water.

After the job with the prey had been done, the Ber…no, Ichi agreed to take the raw meat to Yumi, who would cook it. I stayed back to clean up the rock. I had to hide the carcasses somewhere so that they won't attract bears or other predators.

As I gathered the carcasses I looked back at Ichi. So much shit has happened that I haven't had the time to chase after him. I remember the talk we had back when we were changing the led lamps to the plane. I had him pinned against the fuselage and then that.. well _Soifon_ walked in. We still haven't finished that conversation and it pisses me off. To cut the crap, I can admit that I am attracted to the orange head. There's no reason to hide it. But right now, I'm not sure if I should bring that conversation up again since that might remind Ichi of when Soifon told about the technical problem with the engine. That would bring more problems to my quest of conquering Ichi.

For the first time in my life I actually feel a little hesitant, which makes me feel pathetic and I hate it. But I really don't want to screw this up too badly.

I mentally kicked myself. Such girly thoughts, what the fuck is happening to me? Normally if I want something, I just take it and then leave it when I lose interest. I have been around the block so long that I know what it takes to seduce somebody. And the second I saw the orange head, I knew I'd want him in a way or another. So why am I being so fucking careful? Why didn't I just jump at him when we were alone? Not to rape him, but just continue our little actions from earlier.

I shook my head slightly and sighed in an annoyed manner. Shit, this thinking is making my brain hurt.

I snapped from my thoughts when Rangiku squealed that the food was ready. I had walked quite far away from the plane but her annoying voice still reached my ears easily as ever. I felt like I was starving so I hurried up and threw the carcasses as far as I could and then almost ran back.

* * *

**Ichigo's POV**

Rangiku had actually found the time to gather some blueberries so we ate them after the meat.

I had had the urge to go to the river and wash myself but Rangiku had insisted that I eat first. Gin had appeared from, eh somewhere, as if he had smelled the food and followed the scent. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd done just that. The thing that almost made me vomit was when he splashed a handful of earthworms to the pan, telling that they're "yummy when ya roast 'em". I absolutely refused to taste them.

After I had finished my meal I decided to be polite and thanked before getting up from the ground.

"Oi, where are ya going?" Grimmjow asked as I was starting to walk away from the rest of the group. I glanced at him "The river, to get myself cleaned up" I grabbed my shirt as if to show how dirty it was.

A wide grin plastered itself on the blunet's face "Oh?" he asked but didn't add anything else.

I just looked at him for a while, eyebrows lifted behind my bangs, before turning around and continuing my walk.

* * *

Oh god the cool water felt so good against my skin. I had taken my clothes off (excluding boxers), taken them with me in the water and washed them as properly as I could without any detergent. Then I threw them to the shore and hung then up to a tree to dry up in the sunset, and went back in the river to let my body relax a bit. It felt so nice just to float there and think about nothing. For a short while I forgot everything that had happened. And I mean _everything._ The original bet with Rukia, the bullshitting with the paper I signed, the crash itself, everything.

I let my body sink and then dived underwater. When I dive, I always keep my eyes open even though you might not see a thing in front of you since the water is so murky. I held my breath as long as I could and then came back to the surface to breathe. Droplets of water were dripping into my eyes so I shook my head from side to side to get rid of most of the water in my hair. Then I tried to push my bangs away from my face with my hand, but a few stubborn strands fell back. I let them be because I knew they would always fall back no matter if I used a freaking glue or something.

I kicked the water with my feet to keep my head above the surface and for the first time actually looked at the environment I was in.

It was peaceful. The river flowed slowly and dragonflies flew around, diving close to my head and then gaining height again. A few birds were still singing, but most of them had stopped for the day. A warm summer wind blew, hopefully drying my clothes pretty quickly. As I lazily took in the nice evening a glimpse of blue woke me from my relaxed state.

"Acting like a nymph in there. ya wanna me dead from blood loss?" Grimmjow shouted from the shore. He was leaning casually against a birch, his hands in his pockets.

"What the hell, nymph? Have you gone crazy?"

"Did ya know that when ya shake that wet hair of yers, which by the way looks even nicer now that the setting sun is shining to it, the droplets of water combined with the sun create a small rainbow around ya?"

I didn't answer. Why was he telling me this? How long has he been there? And furthermore, what is this sudden change in his attitude? Earlier today when we were in the forest, the few words we exchanged, they were quite normal. I swam closer to the shore so that my feet could reach the bottom.

"And then tilting yer head back and running yer fingers through yer hair. Yer torturing me on purpose, right?" He left the birch and walked closer to the shore. Then he crouched to the waterline and put a finger into the water. "Yer doing it on purpose"

"I'm not doing anything on purpose. I'm just trying to relax after all I've been through" I studied my hands which were beginning to look wrinkly after being in the water for so long.

"Yeah?" I just nodded in response.

"Then ya don't mind if I come too?" He looked intently at me, making me a little nervous,

"Uh, why would I? It's not like this river is mine or.. something…" I trailed off as I watched him start peeling off his clothes. Okay stick needles into my eyes because I just kept staring at him.

He took off his black shirt and revealed a muscular chest and strong arms. He then turned around to open the zipper of his jeans, showing his muscular back and _backside_ as well. The warm setting sun did its magic, making his skin look more tanned than it actually were. As he started taking off his pants, I mentally slapped myself and forced my eyes to look somewhere else. But I still kept stealing glances of his body.

That actually freaked me out a little. I have _never_ looked at a man like that. Then again, is it wrong to appreciate a good looking body? No matter whom it belongs to? Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it. Hahah, I'm freaking out here for no reason at all. Problem solved.

I could hear splashes behind me so he must be in the water by now. I turned around to see my guess was right. Grimmjow was neck-deep in the river and currently swimming towards me.

"Whaddya thinking?"

"What do you mean? Nothing in particular" Grimmjow uttered a laugh and swam closer

"Don't lie to me, Ichi. Yer brow was furrowed and ya were biting yer lip. Classic hints that somebody is thinking something rather hard." He stopped less than a meter away from me.

"How's yer ankle? Did ya take the bandage off before jumping here?"

My eyes widened "Oh shit I forgot about it. Man, it's drenched now.." I reached my hand underwater to touch the cloth around my ankle. Grimmjow grabbed my arm.

"Leave it. Go back to the shore, I'll come right behind ya once I swim one round. Take it off and hang it to some branch to dry. I'll put it back later." He was about to swim past me but abruptly stopped "And I know ya could do it yerself, but I wanna do it, so.." He gave me a meaningful look, nodded his head towards the shore and then swam farther away from me.

I just stared like an idiot after him and muttered a 'fine' to myself. Then I finally dragged myself to the shore. My boxers were still so wet that I didn't bother putting my jeans back on, so I just lay down on the grass. I closed my eyes and dreamed about something totally trivial. I had begun to doze when suddenly I felt something dropping on top of my stomach. My eyes snapped open in surprise and I sat up.

"Wha..?" I blinked a few times and then noticed Grimmjow standing beside me.

"Made it for ya" He mumbled before leaving to get his clothes. I looked at him in confusion. For me? What? I looked around me and then my eyes caught a sight of a little brown rabbit's foot on the ground. It was attached to a brown rope, making it a necklace. I took the foot in my hand and looked closely at it. There wasn't any blood in it and it looked overall clean. It looked like somebody had put some time into making it.

I looked at Grimmjow, who was walking back to me with both of our clothes in his hands. He put the clothes on the ground and sat beside me.

"It's supposed to bring luck to its carrier" He mumbled and looked at the river in front of us. I could feel the familiar blush taking over my face as I stared at the little object, which was placed on my hand.

"Yeah. Thanks" I half-whispered and swallowed hard.

"Normally it's not a necklace, but I thought it'd be easier for ya to keep around if it were, so.." He glanced at me but then shifted his gaze back at the river.

I didn't say anything but put it around my neck and petted the paw gently. "I really like it, thanks Grimmjow" The bigger man just grunted in response.

We sat there in silence, the setting sun making the scenery quite beautiful. I didn't pay attention to it though, as I kept staring at the object hanging around my neck. I can't believe somebody like him would do something like this. A small smile tugged my lips but I didn't say anything.

Then finally I ended the silence. "So, what do you think: Is anyone going to try to look for us?" I stared at the sunset, but from a side view I could tell that Grimmjow turned his head towards me.

"I believe so, why?"

I hummed and wiggled my toes, which were a little cold. "Just thinking"

Grimmjow sighed. "It'd have been a fuckload better if all of us had survived. Then I wouldn't actually mind being here" Now it was my turn to look straight at him.

"Seriously?" He nodded and hummed in response. Then, another silent moment.

One nice thing I have noticed is that now when I'm with Grimmjow, if there's a quiet moment, it still isn't awkward at all. I guess we could just sit there in perfect silence without any problem. I picked up a stalk of grass and ripped it in small pieces as I wallowed in my thoughts. So does it mean I'm comfortable around him? At least when we're like this? Guess so..

The blunet yawned and got to his feet. "We should head back. It's getting dark and it ain't good if ya catch a cold or something." I slowly nodded and got to my feet.

I could feel his eyes on my body as we put our clothes back on, which made me feel a bit self-conscious. I tried to ignore it though.

On our way back to the plane I decided to ask about the sleeping issue again. Grimmjow just smirked at me. So, the old Grimmjow came back, huh? I shook my head but stopped when a big pile of hay stole my attention.

"Okay what the hell is happening here?" I asked, lifting a hand on my forehead. The blunet was also staring at the pile with wide eyes.

"Took you two long enough, we've been gathering hay." Rangiku's head popped out of the plane and she was smiling widely.

I snorted "Oh? I didn't notice"

Yumi came out of the wreck and dusted the front of his pants. "Yeah, it'd be nicer to sleep when there's something a bit more soft under your side" Rangiku nodded in agreement and I didn't have any other choice than to agree too.

"Oh, Yumi and I are going to sleep in the back part of the plane and Gin has taken the front part to himself" The orange-haired woman chirped and then vanished back into the plane. Yumi took a big heap of hay and went after her.

I stared at nothingness. Grimmjow put a hand to my shoulder and said to my ear. "Seems like were stuck together in the middle part of it" I didn't answer but closed my eyes. The blunet laughed and also took a heap of hay.

"C'mon Ichi, let's go build up our love nest" His grin was eating his face and his eyes sparkled like in a fucking children's cartoon. I sighed in defeat and bowed down to grab a handful of hay.

* * *

**Grimmjow's POV**

"Just keep to your own side, thank you very much!" Ichi bellowed to me as we were getting ready to sleep. Rangiku and Yumi were curled up in their own part of the plane and Gin was looking at us with amusement clearly visible on his face.

"Yeah yeah. And Gin ya fucking bastard turn around or at least stop staring with that damn grin plastered on yer face" I snapped at the silver-haired man in the front part.

"Maa, no need to get angry, Grimm" He chuckled and turned around, his back facing us. Ichi had also turned his back against me, but he was still really close. The plane wasn't very big, so.. I turned to lie on my back and stared at the ceiling. I didn't feel sleepy at all, but I didn't want to start wallowing in my idiotic thoughts again. I gave the freaking rabbit's foot to Ichi already so my brain should already just shut the fuck up.

I closed my eyes and tried to get at least a little sleep.

I must have drifted off at some point since suddenly I woke up as something hit me on the side and it startled the shit out of me. What? Well try it yourself and see what happens!

I slowly turned my head to the side to see what the hell was assaulting my body. What I saw definitely wasn't what I was expecting. It was Ichi. He had turned towards me and was currently curled up against me. The thing that hit my side was his head. I looked at him with amusement. _Keep to your own side._ Hah, who the hell was now invading my side? I didn't do anything to wake him up but kept staring at his sleeping face, as much as I was able to see it for it was almost pressed against me.

Now that I didn't want to feel tired, so that I could keep acting like a fucking teenage girl and stare at his peaceful-looking face, I of course could feel sleep dragging my mind into unconsciousness.

Damnit, damnit all to hell.

I couldn't help it as I carefully turned to my side, so that my chest was facing Ichi, and put an arm around him. If he wakes up, us being like this, I'm going to get my ass handed to me on a silver platter.

But I don't really care. Then I'll just make him take care of me.

Now that I put it like that, I hope he wakes up.

I wonder if I should just wake him up.

* * *

**There you go!  
**

**Goddamnit I just wrote 14 pages in one go. Now I seriously want to do something else.**

**I don't know about you, but I'm not quite satisfied with the previous chapter. Normally I have this nice warm feeling of sick accomplishment when I finish a chapter (weird? Yeah I know), but with it I didn't have it. Now I do with this one.  
So please don't hesitate to let me know if there's something that buggs you in some parts! m(_ _)m  
But anyways I might rewrite something in the 4****th**** chapter, but it shouldn't change too much because obviously it would affect this one too and I wouldn't want to rewrite this also..**

**Oh, and thank you ichibanseiken for mentioning about the roasted worms, I hadn't heard about that one. Now Gin got his roasted worms so everything is okay.**

**Guess that's about it. The next ch might take some time to appear since I'll be writing one-shots for a while. Unless I get some kind of urge to write this.. I sure as hell didn't think I'll write this ch today since I just yesterday put up the previous one D:**

**Anyways, reviews make my day :o**

**~Frichikiras**


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